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PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION 



MICHAEL MULLER, C. S. S. R., 

Priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY PATRICK DONAHOE, 

19 FRANKLIN STREET. 
1872. 



i y>4 



A 

cA 



'Z^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

TATRICK DONAHOE, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 





PAGE 

Introductory \^.^yt *. . . . . « ^.^^y^. . . 7 

Education — Its Object and Necessity 17 

CHAPTER m. 
Origin op the Public School System 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

Expose of the Public School System ..... 75 

CHAPTER V. 

Evil Consequences of the Public School System 
ON THE Male Portion of Society 82 

CHAPTER VI. 

Evil Consequences of the Public School System 
on the Female Portion of Society 87 

CHAPTER VII. 

What is it to be a Mother? 110 

(V) 



VI CONTENTS. 

Chapter viii. : 

' PAGE 

Evil Consequences of the Public School System 
Continued 128 

CHAPTER IX. 

The State. — Its Usurpation of the Individual 
Rights. — Its iNCOMPETENcr to Educate .... 139 

CHAPTER X. 

The State a Robber. — Violation op our Constitu- 
tion AND Common Law 163 

CHAPTER XI. 

Remedy for the Diabolical Spirit and the Crimes 
IN ouE Country 189 

CHAPTER^ XII. 

The Denominational System alone Satisfies the 
Wants op All, and can save the Republic . . 233 

/■ 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Catholic Priest on the Public School System 296 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Answers to Objections .... 340 

CHAPTER XV. 

Zeal op the Priest for the Catholic Education of 
OUR Children 373 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



CHAPTEE I. 



INTEODUCTORY. 




MEEICAN fellow-citizens — America is 
my home ! I have no other country. 
After my God and my religion, my 
country is the dearest object of my life ! I love 
my country as dearly as any one else can. It is 
this love that makes my heart bleed when I call 
to mind the actual state of society in our country, 
and the principles that prevail everywhere. It 
is indeed but too true that we live in a most 
anti-Cbristian age ; principles are disregarded, 
and iniquity is held in veneration. We see 
nothing but confusion in religion, in government, 
in the family circle. Sects spring up and swarm 

(7) 



8 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

like locusts, destroying not only revealed relig- 
ion, but rejecting even the law of nature. 
Fraud, theft, and robbery are practised almost as 
a common trade. The press justifies rebellion, 
secret societies, and plots for the overthrow of 
established governments. The civil law, by 
granting divorce, has broken the family tie. 
Children are allowed to grow up in ignorance of 
true religious principles, and thereby become re- 
gardless of their parents. The num])er of apos- 
tates from Christianity is on the increase, at least 
in the rising generation. Current literature is 
penetrated with the spirit of licentiousness, from 
the pretentious quarterly to the arrogant and flip- 
pant daily newspaper, and the Aveeklyand monthly 
publications are mostly heathen or maudlin. 
They express and inculcate, on the one hand, 
stoical, cold, and polished pride of mere intellect, 
or on the other, empty and wretched sentimen- 
tality. Some employ the skill of the engraver to 
caricature the institutions and offices of the 
Christian religion, and others to exhibit the 
grossest forms of vice, and the most distressing 
scenes of crime and suffering. The illustrated 
press has become to us what the amphitheatre was 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 9 

to the EomaDs when men were slahi, women were 
outraged, and Christians given to the lions to 
please a degenerate populace. The number of 
the most unnatural crimes is beyond computa- 
tion. A wide-spread and deep-seated dishonesty 
and corruption has, like some poisonous virus, 
inoculated the great body of our public men in 
national, state, and municipal positions, so much 
so that rascalitj'' seems to be the rule, and hon- 
esty the exception. Real statesmanship has de- 
parted from amongst us ; neither the men nor 
the principles of the olden time exist any 
longer. 

The shameless cynicism with which the great 
public plunderers of our day brazen out their in- 
famy, is only equalled by the apathy with which 
the public permits these robberies, and condone 
for them by lavishing place and power upon the 
offenders. "The way of the transgressor" has 
ceased to be " hard " — unless he be a transgressor 
of very low degree — and rascality rides rampant 
over the land, from the halls of Congress to the 
lowest department of public plunder. 

The poet has well said that Vice, once grown 
familiar to the view, after first exciting our hate, 



10 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

next succeeded in gainiug our pity, aud finally 
was taken into our embrace. 

The familiarity of the public mind with daily 
aud almost hourly instances of public peculation 
and betrayal of high trusts has created this indul- 
gent disposition, until at last the wholesome in- 
dignation, which is the best safeguard of honesty, 
has been diluted into a maudlin sympathy with 
the malefactors. And the rankuess of the 
growth of this evil is not more startling than its 
rapidity. It is a new thing — a foul fungus, sud- 
denly forced into fetid life, out of the corruptions 
engendered by the war. It is " a new departure " 
in a wronc: direction — down that smooth, broad 
path to the devil. 

AYe all remember the sensation which, before 
the war, was ever caused by the discovery of a 
public defaulter, and the indignation which drove 
him ever forth from place and country, on his de- 
tection. Punishment sure and swift was certain 
to seize upon him, if he dared linger after the 
facts were known. 

A breach of trust was not then considered a 
joke, nor theft elevated into the dignity of a 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 11 

fine art, whose most eminent professors were to 
'be regarded with envy and admiration. 

Think of the clamor which was raised over the 
comparatively petty peculations of Swartwout, 
Schuyler, Fowler, and other small sinners like 
them, who even found the country too hot to hold 
them, and died in exile, as an expiation to the 
public sentiment they had outraged. 

Yet their frauds were as molehills to the moun- 
tains which the busy hands of our public pecula- 
tors have heaped up, and are daily piling higher. 
Within the last ten years, where they stole cents, 
their successors stole by thousands and tens of 
thousands ; and, instead of flying from punish- 
ment, flaunt their crimes and their ill-gotten 
wealth in the face of the community, heedless 
either of the arm of the law, or the more potent 
hiss of public scorn. 

And this financial dishonesty of the times is as 
true of commercial as of political circles, and as 
patent at Washington as at j^ew York and other 
cities. " Think you that those eighteen men on 
whom the tower of Siloam fell, were sinners 
above all others in Jerusalem? I tell you nay ! " 
Think you that those six or seven on whom 



12 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the axe of the piiljlic press fell, are sinners above 
all in New York and elsewhere ? If all men that 
have been guilty of fraud in New York and else- 
where were to have a tower fell on them, there 
would be funerals enough for fifty years. 

One of the saddest symptoms of degeneracy in 
a people is evinced by a desperate levity — a 
scoffing spirit such as that which inspired the 
French people when they denied even God, and 
substituted a prostitute to be their " Goddess of 
Reason." Much of that spirit is unhappily man- 
ifesting itself in our country. 

That most fearful picture of a corrupt commu- 
nity drawu by Curran in his description of the 
public pests of his day — " remaining at the bot- 
tom like drowned bodies while soundness re- 
mained in them, but rising only as they rotted, 
and floating only from the buoyancy of corrup- 
tion" — seems, unhappily, destined to find its 
parallel here, unless public virtue and public 
indignation should awake to condemn and chas- 
tise the corruption which is tainting and poisoning 
the air around us. 

The judgment which overtook the men of 
Siloam was visited on them for sins not unlike those 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 13 

which seem to invite a similar judgment from 
offended Heaven upon our modern Siloams, and is 
no jesting matter. Nay, in view of the many recent 
terrible visitations which have fallen upon differ- 
ent parts of our country, many voices have alread}^ 
been raised proclaiming them as marks of Divine 
wrath against national sins, perpetrated by a 
people who should, by their lives, testify their sense 
of the blessings showered upon them in more 
prodigal profusion than on any other nation in the 
annals of mankind. 

That the great body of our people are corrupt, 
or that they at heart approve of corruption, no 
one will be mad enough to maintain. But they 
are responsible before Heaven and to posterity for 
the criminal apathy they manifest in their silent 
sanction of the corruption and crime which are 
fast making the American name a synonyme for 
theft, for brazen impudence and unblushing ras- 
cality. 

In the life of a nation, as in that of an individ- 
ual, there are periods which are critical ; and a 
restoration to health, or the certainty of speedy 
death, depends on the way this malady is met. 
The crisis which now menaces the life and health 



14 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of the United States cannot be far distant ; for 
private virtue cannot long survive the death of pub- 
lic honor and honesty, nor private morality fail to 
catch the contagion of public profligacy. If 
the representative men of a country, those in 
whom its high trusts are reposed, be corrupt and 
shameless, they will drag down into the same 
mire the morals of the people they plimder and 
misrepresent. Indeed we want no prophet, nor 
one raised from the dead, to tell us the awfully 
tatal results. What can be done to stem the fearful 
torrent of evils that flood the land ? We all know 
that when, in 1765, the famous Stamp Act was 
passed in the British Parliament, on the news 
reaching Boston the bells were muflied, and rang 
a funeral peal. In New York the " Act " was carried 
through the streets with a death's head bearins: 
this inscription: "The Folly of England and the 
Ruin of America." So great was the opposition 
to the " Act," that it was repealed during the spring 
of 17GG. This shows how quickly the evils of 
society can be put down if people set to work in 
earnest. 

Now we cannot expect the people to set to work 
in earnest aI)out stemmini:: the torrent of the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 15 

great evils of the land, unless they are well 
enlightened as to the source from which they flow. 
This source is principally that wrong system of 
education introduced into this country about fifty 
years ago. At that time very few, perhaps, could 
foresee what effects it was calculated to produce. 
After a long trial, we can now pronounce on it 
with certainty by its results. The tree, no longer 
a sapling, can be judged by its fruits. These 
fruits have been so bad that it is high time to call 
the attention of the public to the tree. 

Now in calling attention to this tree, I wish it 
to be once for all distinctly understood, that what- 
ever of a seemingly or even really harsh nature I 
may say in this discussion on the Public Schools, 
is intended and directed solely against the system. 
For those who manage or officiate in them, as 
teachers or otherwise, I have, I trust, all the 
courtesy, charity, and respect due from one cit- 
izen to another. If I offend the prejudices, 
convictions, or susceptibilities of any on this 
strangely misrepresented subject, no one can 
more regret it than myself; I can truly say it is 
not intended. All I ask of my fellow-citizens is 
a fair discussion on this great question of educa- 



IG PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

tion, to look at it without prejudice, without 
bigotry ; for if prejudice and bigotry stand in our 
way, they will stand in the way of the glory and. 
stability of this country, whose future God only 
knows. It is the duty of all citizens to labor with 
a good heart, a clear mind, an earnest soul, to do 
all they can in building up, and strengthening, 
and making still more glorious this great Amer- 
ican people. 




CHAPTER II. 



EDUCATION ITS OBJECT AND NECESSITY. 




HE question of Education is, of all 
others, the most important. It has for 
some time back received a good deal of 
attention in public meetings, in newspapers, and in 
the pulpit. In fact it has become a question of the 
day. On this question, however, there is unfor- 
tunately such an amount of ignorance, prejudice, 
and confusion of ideas, that it is almost impossible 
to make the public understand it. The reason of 
this is, because so many follow the vague views 
expressed on this subject in newspapers. Many 
a paper is undoubtedly political, and so far par- 
tisan ; and as such its editor will defend and 
advance what he believes to be the principles of 
his party. But the question of education rises 
above party politics ; yet when you read many a 
2 (17) 



18 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

paper you will find that the editor appeals to the 
prejudice and passions of party in a way quite 
luiworthy of an independent journalist, and of 
the grave subject under consideration. He ad- 
vances principles which, at first sight, seem to be 
quite true ; for instance : " Public School Educa- 
tion is necessary for our republican form of gov- 
ernment, for the very life of the Republic." 
"It is an admitted axiom, that our form of gov- 
ernment, more than all others, depends on the 
intelligence of the people." ''The framers of our 
Constitution firmly believed that a republic form 
of government could not endure without intel- 
ligence and education generally difl'used among 
the people. The State must, therefore, take all 
means within its power to promote and encourage 
popular education, and furnish this intelligence of 
the people through her public schools." 

At first sight such principles seem to be true, 
and the people in general will accept them. Ex- 
perience teaches that the public will accept, with- 
out question, almost any maxim or problem, 
provided it be formulated in such a manner as to 
convey some specific meaning that does not 
demand reflection or complex examination. For 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 19 

the same reason no small portion of the public 
will reject anything that at first sight seems to 
exceed the measure of their understaudinor. 
Knaves and charlatans, knowing this, impose on 
the public by flattering their intelligence, that they 
may accomplish their own ambitious and selfish 
ends. In this way a multitude of pernicious 
religious, social, and political maxims have come 
into vogue, especially in reference to the question 
of public instruction. Yet on the sound princi- 
ples concerning this question of education, and on 
the right understanding of them, depend not 
only the temporal and eternal happiness of the 
people, but also the future maintenance and free- 
dom, nay, even the material prosperity, of the 
Republic. 

In the discussion of the system of education it 
will no longer do to use vague, unmeaning expres- 
sions, or to advance some general puzzling prin- 
ciples to keep the public in the dark on this 
important point. It is high time that the public 
should be thoroughly enlightened on the subject 
of education. Everybody is talking about educa- 
tion, — the advantages of education, the necessity 
of education ; and yet almost all have come to use 



20 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the word in its narrowest and most imperfect 
meaning, as implying mere cultivation of the 
intellectual faculties, and even this is done in the 
most superficial manner, b}'' cramming the mind 
with facts, instead of making it reflect and 
reason. The great majority even of those who 
write npon the subject take no higher view. 

The term education comprehends something 
more than mere instruction. One may be in- 
structed without being educated ; but he cannot be 
educated without being instructed. The one has 
a partial or liuiited, the other a complete or gen- 
eral, meaning. What, then, is the meaning of 
Education? Education comes from the Latin 
"educo," and means, according to Plato, "to give 
to the body and soul all the perfection of which 
they are susceptible " ; in other words, the object 
of education is to render the youth of both sexes 
beautiful, healthful, strong, intelligent and vir- 
tuous. It is doubtless the will of the Creator 
that man — the masterpiece of the visible world — 
should be raised to that perfection of which he is 
capable, and for the acquisition of which he is 
ofiered the proper means. It is the soul of man 
which constitutes the dignity of his being, and 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 21 

makes him the king of the universe. Now the 
body is the dwelling of the soul — the palace of 
this uoble king ; the nobility of the soul must 
induce us to attend to its palace — to the health 
and strength and beauty of the body; — health, 
strength and beauty are the noble qualities of the 
body. 

The noble qualities of the soul are virtue and 
learning. Virtue and learning are the two trees 
planted by God in Paradise ; they are the two 
great luminaries created by God to give light to 
the world ; they are the two Testaments, the Old 
and the New ; they are the two sisters, Martha 
and Mary, living under one roof in great union and 
harmony, and mutually supporting each other. 

Learning is, next to virtue, the most noble 
ornament and the highest improvement of the 
human mind. It is by learning that all the nat- 
ural faculties of the mind obtain an eminent 
degree of perfection. The memory is exceed- 
ingly improved by appropriate exercise, and be- 
comes, as it were, a storehouse of names, facts, 
entire discourses, etc., according to every one's 
exigency or purposes. The understanding — the 
light of the soul — is exceedingly improved by 



22 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

exercise, and by the acqiiisitiou of solid science 
and useful knowledge. Judgment, the most val- 
uable of all the properties of the mind, and by 
which the other faculties are poised, governed 
and directed, is formed and perfected by expe- 
rience, and resfular well-digested studies and re- 
flection; and by them it attains to true justness 
and taste. The mind, by the same means, acquires 
a steadiness, and conquers the aversion which sloth 
raises against the serious employments of its talents. 

How much the perfection of the mind depends 
upon culture, appears in the difference of under- 
standing between the savages (who, except in 
treachery, cunning and shape, scarce seem to 
differ from the apes which inhabit their forests) and 
the most elegant and civilized nations. A piece of 
ground left wild produces nothing but weeds and 
briers, which by culture would be covered with 
corn, flowers and fruit. The difference is not less 
between a rough mind and one that is well culti- 
vated . 

The same natural culture, indeed, suits not all 
persons. Geniuses must be explored, and the 
manner of instructing proportioned to theTii. 
But there is one thing which suits all persons, and 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 23 

without which knowleclsfe is nothinsf l)ut " a soiuidinor 
brass and tinkling cymbal " : this is the supernatural 
culture of the soul, or the habitual endeavor of 
man of rendering himself more pleasing in the sight 
of God by the acquisition of solid Christian virtues, 
in order thus to reach his last end — his eternal 
happiness. It is for this reason that our Saviour 
tells us : " What doth it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul? For what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" — 
(Matt. xvi. 26.) It is, then, t\\e supernatural cul- 
ture, or the perfection of the soul, that is to be prin- 
cipall}^ attended to in education. 

Now what is the perfection of soul ? The per- 
fection of each being in general, is that which 
renders the being better and more perfect. It is 
clear that inferior beings cannot make superior 
ones better and more perfect. Now the soul, be- 
ing immortal, is superior to all earthly or perish- 
able things. These, then, cannot make the soul 
better and more perfect, but rather worse than 
she is ; for he who seeks what is worse than him- 
self, makes himself worse than he was before. 
Therefore the good of the soul can be only that 
which is better and more excellent than the soul 



24 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

herself is. Now God alone is this Good — He 
being Goodness Itself. He who possesses God 
may be said to possess the goodness of all other 
things ; for whatever goodness they possess, they 
have from God. In the snn, for instance, you 
admire the light ; in a flower, beauty ; in bread, 
the savor; in the earth, its fertility; all these 
have their being from God. No doubt God has re- 
served to Himself far more than He has bestowed 
upon creatures ; this truth admitted, it necessarily 
follows that he who enjoys God possesses in him 
all other things ; and consequently the very same 
delight which he would have taken in other 
tilings, had he enjoyed them separately, he en- 
joys in God, in a far greater measure, and in a 
more elevated manner. For this reason, St. 
Francis of Assisium often used to exclaim : " My 
God and my All" — a saying to which he was so 
accustomed that he could scarcely think of any- 
thing else, and often spent whole nights in meditat- 
ing on this truth. 

Certainly true contentment is only that which 
is taken in the Creator, and not that which is 
taken in the creature ; a contentment which no 
man can take from the soul, and in comparison 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 25 

with which all other joy is sadness, all pleasure 
sorrow, all sweetness bitter, all beauty ugli- 
ness, all delight affliction. It is most certain 
that " when face to face we shall see God as He 
is," we shall have most perfect joy and happiness. 
It follows, then, most clearly, that the nearer we 
approach to God in this life, the more content- 
ment of mind and the greater happiness of soul 
we shall enjoy ; and this contentment and joy is 
of the self-same nature as that which we shall 
have in heaven; the only difference is, that here 
our joy and happiness is in an incipient state, 
whilst there it will be brought to perfection. He, 
then, is a truly wise and learned, a truly well- 
educated, man, who here below has learned how 
to seek God, and to be united as much as possible 
with the Supreme Good of his soul. He there- 
fore imparts a good education to the soul, who 
teaches her how to seek and to find her own 
Good. 

!Now what is it to teach the soul to find her 
own Supreme Good? It is to train, to teach, to 
lead the child in the way he should go, leading 
him in the paths of duty, first to God, and sec- 
ondly to his neighbor. All not professed infidels, 



26 rUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

it appears to me, must admit this definition. But 
as very many believe in " Webster," or " Worces- 
ter," I give the former's definition of education : 
" Educate " — To instill into the mind principles 
of art, science, moi^als, religion, and behavior. 
Acccording to this definition of education, morals 
and religion constitute essential parts of educa- 
tion. Indeed, the first and most important of all 
duties which the child must learn are his moral 
and religious duties ; for it will, I hope, be 
universally admitted that man is not born into 
this world merely to "propagate his species, make 
money, enjoy the pleasures of this world, and die.*' 
If he is not born for that end, then it is most 
important that he be taught for what end he was 
born, and the way appointed by his Creator to at- 
tain that end. 

Every child born into this world is given a 
body and soul. This soul, for which the body 
was created, and which will rise with it at the last 
day, be judged with it for the acts done in life, 
and be happy or unhappy with it for all eternity, 
is, in consequence of the "fall," turned away 
from God, and the body, no longer acting in 
obedience to right reason, seeks its own gratifica- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION 27 

tion, like any irrational animal. Religion (from 
religio) is the means provided by a merciful God 
to reunite the chain broken by the sin of our first 
parents, and bridge over the chasm opened be- 
tween man and his divine destiny. To give this 
knowledge of religion is the principal purpose of 
education. Without this it is mere natural in- 
struction, but no education at all. It would be 
worse than giving, as we say, " the play of Ham- 
let with the part of the Prince of Denmark left 
out." 

Religion, then, forms the spirit and essence of 
all true education. As leaven must be diffused 
throughout the entire mass in order to produce 
its effects, so religion must be thoroughly diffused 
throughout the child's entire education, in order 
to be solid and effective . Not a moment of the 
hours of school should be left without religious 
influence. It is the constant breathing of the 
air that preserves our bodily life, and it is the 
constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere that 
preserves the life of the youthful soul. Here are 
laid the primitive principles of future character 
and conduct. These religious principles may be 
forgotten, or partially effaced, in the journey of 



28 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

life, but they will nevertheless endure, because 
they are engraved by the finger of God Himself. 
The poor wanderer, when the world has turned 
its back upon him, after having trusted to its 
promises only to be deceived, after having 
yielded to its temptations and blandishments 
only to be cruelly injured and mocked, may, at 
last, in the bitterness of his heart, "remember 
the days of his youth," and " return to his father's 
house." So long as fliith remains, however great 
the vice or the crime, there is something to build 
on, and room to hope for repentance, for reforma- 
tion, and final salvation. Faith or religion once 
gone, all is gone. Religion is the crystal vase 
in which education is contained, or rather the 
spirit which infuses and vitalizes it. Religion is 
the very life of society, the very soul of a Chris- 
tian State. 

All nations and governments know and under- 
stand that to exclude Christian education from 
the schools is to exclude it from their law, legis- 
lature, courts, and public and private manners. 
It should, then, ever be borne in mind that relig- 
ion, though distinguishable, is never separable 
from true civil and political science and philos- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 29 

ophy. Enlightened statesmanship will always 
accept and recognize religious education as a most 
valuable and powerful ally in the government of 
the State, or political society. The great Wash- 
ington clearly asserts tliis in his farewell address 
to the American people : " Of the dispositions," 
he says, " which lead to political prosperity, re- 
ligion and morality are indispensable supports. 
Where is the security for property or for life, if 
the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths 
which are administered in our courts of justice? 
And let it not be supposed that morality can be 
maintained without religion." Accordingly our 
legislatures are ope-ned with prayer, the Bible is 
on the benches of our courts ; it is put into the 
hands of jurymen, voters, and even tax-payers ; 
indeed, from its late use and abuse, one might 
thiiik that we were living under the Pentateuch, 
and that the whole moral law and Ten Command- 
ments were bound to the brows of the public or 
State phylacteries. 

Indeed, the politics of every tribe, nation, or 
people, will reflect in an exact degree their moral 
and religious convictions and education. If these 
are false, the political society will be violent, dis- 



30 rUCLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

orderly, and abiiorraal ; if true, the State is calm, 
prosperous, strong and happy. If these proposi- 
tions be true, and I claim they are as axiomatic 
and undeniable as any proposition in Euclid — 
yea more so, for they are the maxims of inspired 
wisdom — how immeasurably important is a true 
Christian education ! 

And if its influence is so great in determining 
even the political conduct of men, it is still more 
necessary and powerful in forming the character 
of true woman — the Christian wife, mother, and 
daughter. The influence of Christian woman on 
society is incalculable. Admitting it possible, for 
a moment, that irreligious men might construct or 
direct an atheistical State, yet it would be utterly 
vain to build up the family, the groundwork of 
all organized communities, without the aid of the 
Christian woman. She it is who, in the deep and 
silent recesses of the household, puts together 
those primitive and enduring materials, each in 
its place and order, on which will rest and grow, 
to full beauty and development, the fair propor- 
tion of every well-ordained State. This founda- 
tion is laid in the care and rearinsr of good and 
dutiful children. The task of the Christian mother 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. ' 3l 

may indeed be slow, and unobserved ; but God 
makes use of the weak to confound the strong, 
and this is beautifully illustrated in the Christian 
woman, who is strong because she is weak, most 
influential when she is most retired, and most 
happy, honored, cherished and respected when 
she is doing the work assigned her by Divine 
Providence, in the bosom of her household. 

It will be admitted, then, that the education of 
girls demands a special culture. Generally upon 
mothers the domestic instruction of the children, 
in their infancy, mainly depends. They ought, 
therefore, to be well instructed in the motives of 
religion, articles of faith, and all the practical 
duties and maxims of piety. Then history, geog- 
raphy, and some tincture of works of genius and 
spirit, may be joined with suitable arts and other 
accomplishments of their sex and condition, pro- 
vided they be guided by and referred to religion, 
and provided books of piety and exercises of de- 
votion always have the first place, both in their 
hearts and in their time. 

They should, then, from their earliest years, if 
possible, be separated in their studies, their plays, 
and their going and returning from school, from 



32 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

children of the opposite sex. They should be placed 
under the surveillance and instruction of mature 
and pious women. Every possible occasion and 
influence should be used to instil into their young 
and plastic minds, by lesson and example, prin- 
ciples of religion and morality. Their studies 
should be grave and practical. Their nervous 
organization is naturally acute, and should be 
strengthened, but not stimulated, as it too often 
is, thereby laying the foundation for that terrible 
and tormenting train of neuralgic affections of 
after-life, debilitating mind and body. 

A thorough Christian education, then, is the 
basis of all happiness and peace, for the family 
as well as for the State itself; for every State 
is but the union of several families. It is for this 
reason that we find good parents so willing to 
make every sacrifice for the Christian education 
of their children, and that all true statesmen, and 
all true lovers of their country, have always en- 
couraged and advocated that kind of education 
which is based upon Christian principles. 

Good, dutiful children are the greatest blessing 
for parents and for the State, whilst children 
without religion are the greatest misfortune, the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 33 

greatest curse that can come upon parents and 
upon the State. 

History informs us that Dion the philosopher 
gave a sharp reproof to Dionysius the tyrant, on 
account of his cruelty. Dionysius felt highly of- 
fended, and resolved to avenge himself on Dion ; 
so he took the son of Dion prisoner, not, indeed, 
for the purpose of killing him, but of giving him 
up into the haiid-S!33f3i'^^go3tSs§^acher. After the 
young ma^ llact iDeen^Jmig en0ii§h under this 
teacher f^ learn from him everyfehiug that was 
bad and impious, Dionysius sent himyback to his 
father. Now what object ha^-t^S^Ji'^iit in act- 
ing thus? He foresaw that this corrupted son, by 
his impious conduct during his whole lifetime, 
would cause his father constant grief and sorrow, 
so much so that he would be for him a life-long 
affliction and curse. This, the tyrant thought, 
was the longest and greatest revenge he could 
take on Dion for having censured his conduct. 

Plato, a heathen philosopher, relates that when 
the sons of the Persian kings had reached the 
age of fourteen, they were given to four teachers. 
The first of these teachers had to instruct them in 
their duties towards God ; the second, to be truth- 

3 



34 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ful under all circumstances ; the third, to overcome 
their passions ; and the fourth teacher taught them 
how to be valiant and intrepid men. 

This truth, that good children are the greatest 
blessing and that bad children are the greatest 
affliction that can befall parents and the State, 
needs no further illustration. There is no father, 
there is no mother, there is no statesman, who is 
not thoroughly convinced of this truth. Can we, 
then, wonder that the Catholic Church has always 
encouraged a truly Christian education ? 

There is nothing in history better established 
than the fact that the Catholic Church has been 
at all times, and inidcr the most trying circum- 
stances, the generous fostering-mother of educa- 
tion. She has labored especially, with untiring 
care, to educate the poor, who are her ftivorite 
children. It was the Catholic Church that 
founded, and endowed liberally, almost all the 
great universities of Europe. Protestants and 
infidels are very apt to overlook the incalculable 
benefits which the Church has conferred on man- 
kind, and yet without her agency civilization 
would have been simply impossible. 

The Catholic Church was, moreover, the first to 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 35 

establish common schools for the free education of 
the people. As early as a.d. 529, we find the 
Councir of Vaison recommendino;' the establish- 
ment of public schools. In 800, a synod at 
Mentz ordered that the parochial priests should 
have schools in the towns and villages, that 
" the little children of all the feithful should learn 
letters from them. Let them receive and teach 
these with the utmost charity, that they them- 
selves may shine as the stars forever. Let 
them receive no remuneration from their scholars, 
unless what the parents, through charity, may vol- 
untarily offer." A Council at Rome, in 836, 
ordained that there should be three kinds of 
schools throughout Christendom : episcopal, paro- 
chial in towns and villages, and others wherever 
there could be found place and opportunity. The 
Council of Late ran, in 1179, ordained the establish- 
ment of a grammar school in every cathedral for 
the gratuitous instruction of the poor. This 
ordinance was enlarged and enforced by the Coun- 
cil of Lyons, in 1245. Li a word, from the days 
of Charlemagne, in the ninth century, down to those 
of Leo X., in the sixteenth century, free schools 
sprang up in rapid succession over the greater 



36 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

part of Europe ; and, mark well, it was almost 
always under the shadow of her churches and her 
monasteries ! Throughout the entire period, 
called, by ignorant bigotry, the "dark ages," 
Roman Pontiffs and Catholic Bishops assembled in 
council and enacted laws requiring the establish- 
ment of free schools in connection with all the 
cathedral and parochial churches. This is a fact 
so clearly proven by Catholic and Protestant his- 
torians, that to deny it would be to betray a gross 
ignorance of history. Even at the present day, 
the Papal States, with a population of only about 
2,000,000, contain seven universities, with an 
average attendance of 660 students, whilst Prussia, 
with a population of 14,000,000, and so renowned 
for her education, has only seven ! Again, in 
every street in Rome there are, at short distan- 
ces, public primary schools for the education of 
the children of the middle and lower classes. 
Rome, with a population of only about 158,000 
souls, has 372 public primary schools, with 482 
teachers, and over 14,000 children attending them, 
whilst Berlin, with a population more than double 
that of Rome, has only 264 schools. Thus orig- 
inated the popular or common schools, or the free 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 37 

education of the people, as an outgrowth of the 
Catholic Church. 

Every one knows that to the Catholic Church is 
diie the preservation of literature after the down- 
fall of the Roman Empire ; and all those who are 
versed in history must admit that the Popes, the 
rulers of the Church, have been the greatest pro- 
moters and protectors of literature and learned 
men in every age. They collected and preserved 
the writings of the great historians, poets, and 
philosophers of Greece and Rome, and they en- 
couraged and rewarded the learned men who, by 
their labors, made those fountains of classical 
literature easily accessible to all students. What 
shall I say of the patronage which they accorded 
to painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and 
the other arts which raise up and refine the human 
soul ? Even the present glorious Pontifi", Pius IX. , 
in the midst of troubles and persecutions, has 
done more for education than the richest and most 
powerful sovereigns of the world. You will 
unite with me, I am sure, in praying that he may 
soon recover the sovereignty of Rome and the 
Papal States, and that he may live many years to 
defend, as. he has done in the past, the cause of 



38 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

religion, truth, Christian eclacatioii, and civiliza- 
tion in the world. But it would take a whole 
day to refer even briefly to all that the Catholic 
Church and her Supreme Pontiff's have done to 
dissipate ignorance, and to improve and enlighten 
the mind of man. I shall merely add that a Prot- 
estant writer, and an open enemy of our religion, 
does not hesitate to state that, acting under the 
guidance and protection of the Holy See, some of 
our religious orders, which are so often assailed 
and calumniated, have done more for the promo- 
tion of philosophy, theology, history, archaeology, 
and learning in general, than all the great univer- 
sities of the world, with all their wealth and pat- 
ronage. 

Moreover, it is a well-known fact that the Cath- 
olic Church has always fought for the liberty to 
educate her children not only in the necessary 
branches of science, but also, and above all, to 
teach them, at the same time, their religious duties 
towards God and their fellow-men. And who but 
an infidel can blame her for that ? 

Every one must know that by the united efforts 
of the Catholic clergy and laity, schools, colleges, 
seminaries, boarding-schools for ladies and boys, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 39 

and other educational establishments, have been 
erected in almost every part of the world, and 
erected without a cent of public money, which 
was so plentifully lavished on Protestant institu- 
tions. But, without leaving this country, do we 
not find in the various States of the Union mag- 
nificent proofs of generous Catholic zeal in pro- 
moting everything connected with education? 
And have not the parochial and religious clergy 
in so^many places made the noblest exertions to 
erect institutions for the instruction of their flocks ? 
and have not the laity assisted them in a most 
munificent manner? All this shows their great 
desire to promote the growth of knowledge. 

Man is born a believing creature, and cannot, 
if he would, destroy altogether this noble attribute 
of his nature. If he is not taught, or will not ac- 
cept, a belief in the living and uncreated God, he 
will create and worship some other god in His 
stead. He cannot rest on pure negation. There 
never has been a real, absolute unbeliever. All 
the so-called unbelievers are either knaves or 
idiots. All the Gentile nations of the past have 
been religious people ; all the Pagan powers of 
the present are also believers. There never has 



40 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

been a nation without faitli, without an altar, with- 
out a sacrifice. Man can never, even for a single 
instant, escape the All-seeing Eye of God, or avoid 
the obligations of duty imposed on him by his 
Creator. The Pantheists of ancient as well as 
of modern times recognize this foct, although 
they do not discharge their religious obligations 
conformably to the Divine will, but make to them- 
selves other gods instead. 

As there has been a religion and a ritual among 
all nations, tribes and peoples, so has there been 
also a "hierarchy " to teach this religion, and make 
known its obligations. These reliofious oblisfa- 
tions constituted then, and constitute even now, 
the basis of all popular education throughout the 
world — Christian, Gentile, or Pagan — there is 
no exception to this fact save in these United 
States of America. 



CHAPTER III. 



ORIGESr OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL, SYSTEM. 







jTEANGE as it may seem, it is a certain 
undeniable fact that there is not, on the 
entire continent of Europe, or in the 
entire world, a single country, Protestant or 
Catholic, that upholds the Pagan system of edu- 
cation which has been adopted in this free 
country. In all of them Catholic and Protestant 
children receive religious instruction, during the 
school-hours, from their respective pastors. The 
present system of the Public Schools in the United 
States professes to exclude all religious exercises. 
We are often told that this is the American sys- 
tem, and that it is very impertinent for foreign- 
ers to wish to bring religion into schools against 
the American idea. Now the assertion that the 
exclusion of all religion from the schools is truly 
American, that it is an essential part of our na- 
(41) 



42 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

tional system, is utterly false. So far as any 
system of public schools can be said to have an 
American idea, the idea will be found to be " edu- 
cation based on religious instruction." 

The first schools established in the Union were 
religious denominational schools. These schools 
were supported by the churches with which they 
were connected, and by their patrons. Religious 
exercises formed a part of the daily duties of the 
class-room. The early founders of this Republic 
were not able to understand how they could bring 
up their children in the knowledge, love, and ser- 
vice of God b}^ banishing the Bible, prayer, and 
religious exercises of every kind from the school. 
Hence religion was reverenced, and its duties at- 
tended to in all institutions of learninof in the 
country. The American system of education, in 
its incipiency, and for a long while, was one 
founded on Bible-teaching and religious exercises. 
The present system is un-American, anti- 
American. 

Now how did it happen that the primitive 
Christian system of education became unchristian 
and anti- American ? To make you understand 
more clearly the origin of the present system of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 43 

the Public Schools, I must first show you how 
Secret Societies seek to spread Irreligious Educa- 
tion in Europe. 

These societies profess the most irreligious 
and anti-social doctrines. Among the chief 
means employed by them for pushing forward 
their diabolical principles is Education without Re- 
ligion. The "International," one of the most 
powerful of these organizations, has lately put 
forward a programme, in which the following 
points are laid down as most necessary to be in- 
sisted upon in the agitation conducted by the so- 
cialist democratic party in Switzerland : 

"... Compulsory and gratuitous education up to the 
completion of the fourteenth year of each child's age. 
. . . Separation of the Church from the State, and also 
of the schools from the Church." 

About three short years ago a pamphlet was 
published in which we find detailed the efforts 
made in France to spread irreligion by means of 
bad education. The letters of eighty of the Prel- 
ates of France are appended to the pamphlet. 
Alas ! the sad forebodings of that noble episco- 



44 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOIST. 

pate have been too soon and too terribly ful- 
filled ! 

The following lengthy extracts are taken from 
the late Pastoral of the Bishops of Ireland on 
Christian Education : 

"EFFORTS TO SPREAD IRRELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN FRANCE — 
DISASTROUS RESULTS IN FRANCE. 

" ' I see,' says the most reverend author, ' that for 
some time past the most extraordinary efforts are made 
in France to spread impiety, immorality, the most anti- 
social theories, under the pretext of spreading education. 
No longer as formerly, it is in newspapers and books 
that religion, morality, and the eternal principles of 
good order are attacked with the most deceitful and for- 
midable weapon of a corrupt system of education. Un- 
der cover of an excellent object — and here is the great 
danger, for Ave are deluded by this pretext — • under the 
pretext of spreading education and waging war against 
ignorance, infidelity is spread, war is Avaged against re- 
ligion ; and thus, whether we will or no, we rush on to 
the ruin of all order, moral and social. And we, the 
Bishops, who are as desirous as others, and perhaps 
more desirous than others, to see spread far and wide the 
blessings of education, the education of children, female 
education, the education of our whole people, for this is 
by excellence a Christian work, Ave are accused of being 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 45 

enemies of education, because we oppose anti-Christian 
and anti-social education.' " 

The first fact mentioned by the learned writer 
is the existence of schools, which are called 
'^professional schools for females,''^ into which 
young girls are received at twelve years of age 
and upwards, for the purpose of continuing their 
education and learning a profession. These 
schools have been founded by women, free- 
thinkers, who formally and expressly declare it 
to be their object to train the youth of their own 
sex in rationalism and infidelity. The following 
incident shows the impious end for which these 
schools have been founded : One of the principal 
teachers died, and over her grave her husband 
pronounced these words, — "I will tell you, for 
it is my duty to tell you, that if this funeral is 
that of a free-thinker " [unaccompanied by any 
religious ceremony], "it is so not only by my 
wish, but also and chiefly because such was the 
desire of my dear wife." He adds that she had 
devoted herself to " the great work of spreading 
education and morality without religion, because 
she had no faith except in learning and injustice; 



46 PUBLIC SCPIOOL EDUCATION. 

she was of those who, havhig once seen and com- 
prehended these truths, can have no other beacon 
to guide them in life, or at the hour of death.'''' 
Round that grave, whose occupant had rejected 
religion and its ministrations in life and in death, 
stood three hundred girls, pupils of those "pro- 
fessional schools,^' holding bouquets in their 
hands, and throwing flowers on the coffin of 
their mistress. The schools are of a piece with 
the teachers. Ten hours are spent in them, but 
all religious instruction is strictly forbidden, 
under the pretext that they are free schools, 
"open to children of all persuasions, ivithout re- 
ligious distinction." Tlie founders of these 
schools propose to give to the girls intrusted to 
them a moral education without ever speaking to 
them of religion! And this is the system of 
education which people are anxious to spread 
throughout France, and even in this countrv also. 
But, though we hope they will not succeed, can 
we feel fully confident that we shall escape the con- 
tagion, when we remember that this system is no 
other than the " mixed si/stem," and when we bear 
in mind the untiring efforts which are made to 
develop and consolidate that system in Irelaud in 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 47 

every branch of education, from the university, 
through the model-school, down to the humblest 
village-school? Read the description of the 
schools in France, of which we are speaking, and 
say, does it not apply to every school, even in 
Ireland, where the mixed principle is thoroughly 
carried out? 

" The printed prospectus of these schools " [coutlnues 
the most reverend writer] " clearly explains the advan- 
tages of professional education, while it hides the relig- 
ious danger under vague expressions of an apparent 
liberality, such as the following : ' The school is open to 
children of all fersuasions^ without religious distinction.' 
The meaning of which words is no other than that in 
these schools, where children are kept from the twelfth 
to the eighteenth year of their age, and for ten hours 
every day (from eight a.m. to six p.m.), God and the 
Gospel shall be treated as if they never existed ; not 
only religion shall never be mentioned, but these girls 
shall be taught morality independent of any dogmatic 
faith, any religion 

" The second engine iised by the enemies of religion 
in France for the maintenance and spread of infidelity, is 
the Educational League. This League has been intro- 
duced from Belgium into France by the Freemasons and 



48 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the ' Solidaires ' — the members of an impious associa- 
tion, the avowed object of which is to prevent persons 
from receiving tlie sacraments, or any of the sacred rites 
of the Church, in life or in death. The Educational 
League, with a wonderful spirit of propagandism, has es- 
tablished, throughout France libraries and courses of 
instruction for men and for women, and even for girls 
and young children. On their banner is inscribed 
' Spread of Education ' ; but under this device is hidden 
the scheme of propagating irreligion. The founder of 
the 'League ' in France * was a Freemason, and both his 
declarations and those of the organs of Freemasonry 
leave no doubt of the Masonic origin of the scheme, and 
of the spirit which animates it. Now the third article 
of the statutes of the ' League ' declares, when speaking 
of the education to be given by their association, that 
' neither politics nor religion shall have any part in it.' 
And lest there should be any mistake as to the meaning 
of this article, one of the leading Masonic journals de- 
clares that religion is ' useless as an instrument for form- 
ing the minds of children, and that from a certain point 
of view it is capable of leading them to abandon all moral 
prmciples. It is incumbent on us, therefore,' concludes 
this journal, ' to exclude all religion. We will teach you 
its rights and duties in the name of liberty, of conscience, 

* Jean Mace. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 49 

of reason, and, in fine, in the name of our society.'* And 
again : ' Freemasons must give in their adhesion en masse 
to tlie excellent Educational League, and the lodges must 
in the peace of their temples seek out the best means of 
making it effectual. Their influence in this way will be 
most useful. The 'principles toe profess are precisely in 
accord iviih those which inspired that project.'f In April 
of the same year, the same organ of Freemasonry con- 
tained the following paragraph : ' We are happy to an- 
nounce that the Educational League and the statue of our 
brother Voltaire meet with the greatest support in all the 
lodges. There could not be two subscription-lists more 
in harmony with each other : Voltaire, the representative 
of the destruction of prejudices and superstition ; the 
Educational League, the engine for building up a ncAV 
society based solely upon learning and instruction. Our 
brethren understood it so.' In fine, that there may not 
remain upon our minds the least doubt as to the identity 
of the principles of this League with those of Voltaire, 
Ave find its founder in France proposing, at a great Ma- 
sonic dinner, a toast to the memory of that arch-infidel ; 
while the newspaper from which we have quoted so 
largely, informs its readers that at one of the 'profes- 

* •'■ La Solidarite.'" (Le Monde Maconnique, October, 5866 
[1806], p. 472.) 

t " La Solidarite." (Le Monde Maconnique, February, 5867 
[1867].) 

4 



50 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

sional schools,' described above, the prize for good con- 
duct (Je prix de morale) was awarded to ' the daughters 
of a free-thinker, who have never attended any place of 
religious tvorship.' " 

We cannot better conclude our remarks on the 
efforts made in France to destroy religion in the 
masses by means of education, than in the follow- 
ing words of warning, not less applicable to good 
and sincere Catholics in Ireland nowadays, than 
to those to whom they were specially addressed : 

"Good and sincere Catholics (continues the author of 
the pamphlet already quoted), who, deceived by the 
motto of the association, have given their names to this 
Educational League, take part, without knowing it, in a 
Masonic institution, and in building up this new state of 
society, from \yhich religion is to be banished. Well 
may the Bishop of Metz say : ' These persons forget that, 
like Proteus in the fable. Freemasonry knows how to 
multiply ad infinitum its transformations and its names. 
Yesterday it called itself ' Les Solidaires,' or 'morality in- 
dependent of religion,' or ' freedom of thought ' ; to-day 
it takes the title of an ' Educational League ' ; to-morrow 
it will find some other name by which to deceive the 
simple." 

The efforts to corrupt the youth of unhappy 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 51 

France by means of bad education in its higher 
branches, have been not less energetic and wide- 
spread. The lectures of the School of Medicine 
of Paris were inauo-urated in 1865, amid shouts of 
" Materialism forever " * and on the thirtieth of 
December a candidate for degrees was permitted 
by the Medical Faculty to advance the following 
revolutionary doctrine, grounded on the materi- 
alistic principles he had been taught: "Who still 
speaks to us of free-will? As the stone which 
falls to the ground obeys the laws of weight, man 
obeys the laws which are proper to him. . . Re- 
sponsibility is the same for all, that is to say, 
none." And again: "Physicians must not be ac- 
complices of the magistrates and judges, who 
punish men for acts for which they are not respon- 
sible" — pp. 32, 33. Here we have a sample of 
the teaching of the School of Medicine of Parfs, 
not only the first medical school of France, but 
among the first schools of Europe. And this 
sample is, unfortunately, not a solitary one. The 
Medical Faculty of the University of Paris gave 
medals in 1866 for two dissertations, in one of 
which we find a denial of the act of creation and 

* Vive le Materialisme. 



52 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of God the Creator, and a rejection of every raet- 
aphj'sical idea, as useless and dangerous; while 
human thought is set down as produced by heat! 
In the other we read the following propositions : 
"Matter is eternal." ''The action of a First Cause 
is useless and irrational — it is chimerical!" 
Again : "It is absolutely impossible to explain the 
existence of a creative power" ; and "an immate- 
rial being is not necessary for the production of 
life." And, "to attribute the phenomena of life 
to an immaterial soul, is to substitute a chimerical 
being for the hypothesis of machinists." "Materi- 
alists have done good service to physiolog}'- by 
eliminating metaphysical entities from this study. 
The idea of the soul, as an immaterial power, is a 
mere abstraction ; in fact, nothing of the kind 
exists." 

Unhappily these principles, subversive of all 
morality, are not advanced by the aspirants only 
to academical distinctions ; most certainly the 
students would not advance these theories had 
they not learned them from their masters. Hence 
we find one of the Professors of the University of 
France, in Bordeaux, asserting, that " even among 
civilized nations moral ideas are so relative, con- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 53 

tradiQtory, and dependent on exterior and individ- 
ual relations, that it is imposssible, and will always 
be impossible, to find an absolute definition of 
goodness." — p. 38, note. And the "Medical Re- 
view " published the discourse pronounced by one 
of the physicians of the Faculty of Paris, M. Ver- 
neuil, over the grave of a member of their learned 
body, Dr. Foucher, in which we find the follow- 
ingr : 



" ' We are reproached with believing with the sages of 
old, that Fate is blind, and as such presides over our lot. 
And why should we not believe it? ... . Humbling 
and sad as is this admission, still we must make it : im- 
perceptible elements of the great social organization 
appearing upon this earth as living beings, fragments of 
mp,tter agitated by a spirit, we are born, we live, and 
we die,' unconscious of our destiny, playing our part 
without any precise notion of the end, and in the midst 
of the darkness which covers our origin arid our end, 
having only one consolation — the love of our fellow- 
man. 

" 'This simple philosophy alone,' M. Yerneuil contin- 
ues, ' assuages our grief and ends by drying our tears. 
By the side of the half-open tomb we ask, whether he 
whom it contains served the good cause without deceit. 



54 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

... If, by his intelligence or hii klndaess of heart, he 
labored in the great work, we say he has paid his part 
of the common debt, and whether he returns to his orig- 
inal nothing or not, whether he is destroyed or merely 
changes his form, whether he hears our words or not, 
we thank him in the name of the past and of the future.' " 

Another distinguished Professor published, in 
1866, Lectures on the Physiology of the JVervous 
System, in which we find the following passage : 

'""We admit,' he says, '■without any restriction, that 
intellectual phenomena in animals are of the same order 
as in man. . . .' ' As for free-will, we comprehend a 
certain kind of free-will in the more iutelligent animals ; 
and, on the other hand, Ave may add, that perhaps man 
is not so free as he would fain persuade himself he is.' 
And ' as to feeling the distinction hetioeen good and evil, 
it is a grave question, xohich ive must first study in man 
himself!'" 

Let it not be supposed that these principles are 
merely announced as abstractions ; conclusions are 
drawn from them which must fill every thinking 
mind with horror. Eighty students of the Normal 
School, the great training institution of teachers 



PUBLIC SCPIOOL EDUCATION. 55 

for the North of France, applauded such conclu- 
sions in a public letter. Several of the infidel 
Professors of the Faculty of Medicine received 
ovations from crowded class-rooms ; millions of 
immoral and irrelio;ious books were scattered 
throughout the country. Thus Freemasonry, un- 
der the pretext of combating ignorance, wages a 
deceitful and implacable war against religion. 
"We too," says the organ of Freemasons,* "we 
too expect our Messiah, the true Messiah, of the 
mind and reason — universal education ! " 

"It is scarcely necessary for us to remind you, 
dearly beloved brethren, that the seeds of irrelig- 
ion and anarchy thus sown broadcast over the fair 
face of France, have already produced a too abun- 
dant harvest of evils, perhaps the most disastrous 
recorded on the page of history. All Europe has 
been horrified by the atrocities perpetrated within 
the last few months in the name of liberty in that 
city, which was looked on as the centre of the 
civilization of the world. jSFational monuments 
have been destroyed, peaceable citizens robbed 
and murdered, the venerable Archbishop, many 

Le Monde Maconnique, June, 1866. 



56 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of the clergy, and leading members of the civil 
and military authorities, massacred in cold blood. 
In other cities of France, too, we have seen an- 
archy and irreligion proclaimed — miscreants in 
arms against the property, and liberty, and lives 
of their fellow-citizens, often of the helpless and 
unprotected ; and all this at a moment when the 
country was invaded, and a part of it occupied, 
by its enemies. The storm had been sown, and 
in very truth unfortunate France has reaped the 
whirlwind. 



"SPREAD OF IN'FIDELITT THROUGH BAD EDUCATION' NOT 
CONFINED TO FRANCE. 

" And unhappily, dearly beloved brethren, the 
spread of infidel principles by means of bad educa- 
tion is not confined to France. A few years ago a 
congress of students was held in Liege, in Belgium, 
where infidel and anti-social principles in their 
worst form were proclaimed amidst the plaudits 
of the assembly. In England irreligion and soci- 
alism are publicly taught. Even in our own 
country it is a matter of notoriety, that a Chair in 
one of the Queen's Colleges has been occupied 
since their foundation by a gentleman, who, in a 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 57 

published work, extolled the first French revolu- 
tion, and, in another place of the same book, com- 
pared our Saviour, whose name be praised forever, 
to Luther and to Mahomet ! Again : In Trinity 
Colleo-e one of the Fellows denies the fundamental 
truth of Christianity respecting the eternity of the 
punishment of sin ; and others call in question the 
inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, or of portions 
of them, and impugn many truths which consti- 
tute the foundation of all revealed religion. In 
the same University, too, the doctrines of Pos- 
itivism, a late form of infidel philosophy, have a 
large number of followers. The nature of that 
philosophy may be gathered from the following 
passages in the ' Catechism of Positivism, or 
Summary Exposition of the Universal Religion,' 
translated from the French of Auguste Comte. 
The preface begins thus : 

" ' In the name of the past and of the futiire, the ser- 
vants of humanity — both its philosophical and practical 
servants — come forward to claim, as their due, the gen- 
eral direction of this world. Their object is to constitute 
at length a real Providence in all departments — moral, 
intellectual, and material. Consequently they exclude, 
once for ail, from political supremacy, all the different 



58 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

servants of God — Catholic, Protestant, or Deist — as 
being at once behind-hand and a cause of disturbance.' 

"The work consists of ' Thirteen Systematic Con- 
versations between a Woman and a Priest of Hu- 
manity,' and the doctrines contained in it are 
epitomized in the following blasphemous lines : 

" ' J?z a loord^ Humanity definitely occupies the place of 
God, hut she does not forget the services which the idea of 
God provisionally rendered.' 

" TESTIMONY OF REV. PROFESSOR LIDDON. 

" Again, during the last two sessions of Parlia- 
ment, a Select Committee of the House of Lords 
sat to inquire into the condition of the English 
Universities. The Marquis of Salisbury was the 
chairman. The evidence taken before that com- 
mittee reveals the appalling fact that infidelity, or 
doubt as to the first principles of the Christian 
religion, nay, of belief in God, is widespread in 
the Universities of England, and especially among 
the most intellectual of the students ; and that this 
sad result is due in a great measure to the teach- 
ing and examinations. In the first report for the 
session 1871, pp. 67, 69, and 70, in the evidence 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 59 

of the Rev. Professor Liddon, D.D., Canon of St. 
Paul's, London, and Professor of Exegesis in the 
University of Oxford, we find the following pas- 
sages : 

^^ Quest. 695. Chairman. — ' Very strong evidence has 
been given to us upon the influence of the Final School ' 
(the examiaation for degrees with honors) ' upon Oxford 
thought, as tending to produce at least momentary dis- 
belief.' 

" Witness. — ' I have no doubt whatever it is one of the 
main causes of our present embarrassments.' 

" 696. — ' That, I suppose, is a comparatively new phe- 
nomenon ? ' 

"'Yes; it dates from the last great modification in 
the system pursued in the Honors School of Uteres human- 
iores. It is mainly the one-sided system, as I should ven- 
ture to call it, of modern philosophical writers.' 

"697. — 'Is there any special defect in the manage- 
ment which produces this state of things, or is it essen- 
tial to the nature of the school? ' 

" ' I fear it is to a great extent essential to the nature 
of the school, as its subjects are at present distributed.' 

"Again, in answer to Question 706, the same 
witness says : 

" ' I ought to have stated to the noble Chairman just 



60 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCxiTION. 

uow that cases have come within my own experience of 
men who have come up from school as Christians, and 
have been earnest Christians up to the time of beginning 
to read philosophy for the Final School, but who, during 
the year and a half or two years employed in this study, 
have surrendered first their Christianity, and next their 
belief in God, and have left the University not believing 
in a Supreme Being.' " 

Now what kind of a being is the infidel", or the 
man without reljo^ion ? To have no relisrion is a 
crime, and to boast of having none is the height 
of folly. He that has no religion must necessa- 
rily lose the esteem and confidence of his friends. 
What confidence, I ask, can be placed in a man 
who has no religion, and, consequently, no knowl- 
edge of his duties? What confidence can yon 
place in a man who never feels himself bound by 
any obligation of conscience, who has no higher 
motive to direct him than his self-love, his own 
interests? The pagan Roman, though enlightened 
only by reason, had yet virtue enough to say : " I 
live not for myself, but for the Republic " ; but 
the infidel's motto is : "I live only for myself; I 
care for no one but myself." Oh, what a mon- 
ster would such a man be in society were he 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 61 

really to thiuk as he speaks, aud to act as he 
thinks ! 

A man who has no religion, must first prove 
that he is honest before we can believe hini to be 
so. It is said of kings aud rulers, they must prove 
that they have a heart, and it may also be said of 
the man who has no religion, that he must prove 
that he has a conscience. Aud I fear he would 
not find it so easy a task. 

A man without religion is a man without reason, 
a man without principle, a man sunk in the 
grossest ignorance of what religion is. He blas- 
phemes what he does not understand. He rails 
at the doctrines of Christianity, without really 
knowing what these doctrines are. He sneers at 
the doctrines and practices of religion, because he 
cannot refute them. He speaks with the utmost 
gravity of the fine arts, the fashions, and even 
matters the most trivial, and he turns into ridicule 
the most sacred subjects. In the midst of his 
own circle of fops and silly women, he utters his 
shallow conceits with all the pompous assurance 
of a pedant. 

The man without religion is a dishonest pla- 
giarist, who copies from Christian writers all the 



62 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

objections made against the Church by the infidels 
of former and modern times ; but he takes good 
care to omit all the excellent answers and com- 
plete refutations which are contained in these very 
same writings. His object is not to seek the 
truth, but to propagate falsehood. 

The man without religion is a slave of the most 
degrading superstition. Instead of worshipping 
the true, free, living God, who governs all things 
by His Providence, he bows before the horrid 
phantom of blind chance or inexorable destiny. 
He is a man who obstinately refuses to believe 
the most solidly-established facts in favor of re- 
ligion, and yet, with blind credulity, greedily 
swallows the most absurd falsehoods uttered 
against religion. He is a man whose reason has 
fled, and whose passions speak, object and decide 
in the name of reason. 

The man without religion often pretends to be 
an infidel merely in order to appear fashionable. 
He is usually conceited, obstinate, puffed up with 
pride, a great talker, always shallow and fickle, 
skipping from one subject to another without even 
thoroughly examining a single one. At one 
moment he is a Deist, at another a Materialist, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 63 

then he is a Sceptic, and again an Atheist ; always 
changing his views, bnt always a slave of his 
passions, always an enemy of Christ. 
• The man without religion is a slave of the most 
shameful passions. He tries to prove to the 
world that man. is a brute, in order that he might 
have the gratification of leading the life of a brute. 
I ask you, what virtue can that man have who be- 
lieves that whatever he desires is lawful, who 
designates the most shameful crimes by the re- 
fined name of innocent pleasures? What virtue 
can that man have who knows no other law than 
his passions ; who believes that God regards with 
equal eye truth and falsehood, vice and virtue? 
He may indeed practise some natural virtues, but 
these virtues are in general only exterior. They 
are practised merely out of human respect ; they 
do not come from the heart. Now the seat of 
true virtue is in the heart, and not in the exterior. 
He that acts merely to please man and not to 
please God, has no real virtue. 

The man without religion often praises all re- 
ligions ; he is a true knave. He says : "If I were 
to choose my religion, I would become a Catholic, 
for it is the most reasonablo of all relisrions." But 



64 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

in his heart ho despises all religion. He is a man 
who scrapes together all the wicked and absnrd 
calumnies he can find against the Church. He 
falsely accuses her of teaching monstrous doc- 
trines which she has always abhorred and con- 
demned, and he displays his ingenuity by 
combating those monstrous doctrines which he 
himself has invented, or copied from authors as 
dishonest as himself. The infidel is a monster 
without faith, without law, without religion, with- 
out God. 

There are many who call themselves " free- 
thinkers," many who reject all revealed religion, 
merely out of silly puerile vanity. They affect 
singularity in order to attract notice, in order to 
make people believe that they are strong-minded, 
that they are independent. Poor deluded slaves 
of human respect ! They affect singularity in 
order to attract notice, and they forget that there 
is another class of people in the world also noted 
for singularity. In fact they are so singular that 
they have to be shut up for safe keeping in a 
mad-house. 

AVhat is the difference between an infidel and 
a madman? The only difference is, that the mad- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 65 

ness of the lufidel is wilfal, while the madness of 
the poor lunatic is entirely involuntary. The 
one arouses our compassion, while the other ex- 
cites our contempt and just indignation. 

Finally, the man without religion says : "There 
is no God." He says so "^7^ his heart" says Holy 
Writ ; he says not so in his head, because he knows 
better. Let him be in imminent danger of death, 
or of a considerable loss of fortune, and you will 
see how quick, on such occasions, he lays aside 
the mask of infidelitj^ ; he makes his profession 
of faith in an Almighty God ; he cries out : "Lord 
save me, I am perishing! Lord have mercy ou 
me ! " and the like. 

There is still another proof to show that the 
infidel does not ' believe what he says : why is it 
that he makes his impious doctrines the subject 
of conversation on every occasion? It is, of 
course, first to communicate his devilish prin- 
ciples to others, and make them as bad as he him- 
self is ; but this is not the only reason. The 
good Catholic seldom speaks of his religion ; he 
feels assured, by the grace of God, that his re- 
ligion is the only true one, and that he will be 
saved if he lives up to his religion. This, how- 

5 



6Q PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ever, is not the case with the infidel. He is con- 
stantly tormented in his sonl. "There is no 
peace, no happiness for the impious," says Holy 
Scripture. — (Isa. xlviii. 22.) He tries to quiet 
the fears of his soul, the remorse of his con- 
science. So he communicates to others, on every 
occasion, his perverse principles, hoping that he 
may meet with some of his fellow-men who may 
approve of his impious views, and that thus he 
may find some relief for his interior torments. 
He resembles a timid night-traveller. A timid 
man, who is obliged to travel during a dark night, 
begins to sing and to cry in order to keep away 
too o^reat fear. The infidel is a sort of nisrht-trav- 
cller ; he certainly travels in the horril)lc dark- 
ness of his impiety. His interior conviction tells 
him that there is a God, who will certainly pun- 
ish him in the most frightful manner. This fills 
him with great fear, and makes him extremely un- 
happy every moment of his life. lie cannot 
bear the sight of a Catholic church, of a Catholic 
procession, of an image of our Lord, of a pic- 
ture of a saint, of a prayer-book, of a good 
Catholic, of a priest; in a word, he cannot bear 
anything that reminds him of God, of religion, 



rUBLIG SCHOOL EDUCATION. 67 

of his guilt, and of his impiety. So he cries, on 
every occasion, against faith in God, in all that 
God has revealed and proposes to us for our be- 
lief by the Holy Church. What is the object of 
his impious cries? It is to deafen, to keep down 
in some measure, the clamors of his bad con- 
science. Our hand will Involuntarily touch that 
part of the body where we feel pain. So, in 
like manner, the tongue of the infidel touches, on 
all occasions, involuntarily as it were, upon all 
those truths of our holy religion which inspire 
hira with fear of the judgments of Almighty God. 
He feels but too keenly that he cannot do away 
with God and His sacred religion, by denying His 
existence. 

I have given you the true portrait — the true 
likeness — of the man without religion. Were you 
given to see a devil and the soul of an infidel at 
the same time, you would find the sight of the 
devil more bearable than that of the infidel. For 
St. James the Apostle tells us, that " the devil 
believes and trembles." — (Chap. ii. 19.) Now 
the Public School system was invented and in- 
troduced into this country to turn the rising gen- 
erations into men of the above description. 



68 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

Spread of Infidelity through Bad Education in 
America; or, The Object of the Public School 
System, 

Mr. O. A. Brownson, hi his book "The Con- 
vert," Chajis. VII. and VIII., gives us the follow- 
ing information on the origin of the Public Schools 
in this country : 

" Frances Wright was boru in Scotland, and inherited 
a considerable property. She had been highly educated, 
and was a woman of rare original powers, and extensive 
and varied information. She was brought up in the 
utilitarian principles of Jeremy Bentham. She visited 
this country in 1824. Returning to England in 1825, 
she wrote a book in a strain of almost unbounded eulogy 
of the American people and their institutions. She saw 
only one stain upon tlie American character, one thing 
in the condition of the American people to censure or to 
deplore — that was negro-slavery. 

" When, in the next year, Mr. Owen came, with his 
friends, to commence his experiment of creating a new 
moral world at New Harmony, Frances Wright came 
with him, not as a full believer in his crotchets, but to 
try an experiment, devised Avith Jefferson, Lafayette, and 
others, for the emancipation of the negro-slave. 

" Fanny Wright, however, failed in her negro exper- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 69 

iment. She soon discovered that the American people 
were not, as yet, prepared to engage in earnest for the 
abolition of slavery. On more mature reflection she 
came to the conclusion that slavery must be abolished 
only as the result of a general emancipation, and a radical 
reform of the American people themselves. 

" The iirst step to be taken for this purpose was to 
rouse the American mind to a sense of its rights and 
dignity, to emancipate it from superstition, from its sub- 
jection to the clergy, and its fear of unseen powers, to 
withdraw it from the contemplation of the stars or an 
imaginary heaven after death, and fix it on the great and 
glorious work of promoting mail's earthly well-being. 

" The second step was, by political action, to get 
adopted, at tlie earliest practical moment, a system of 
State schools, in which all the children from two years 
old and upward should be fed, clothed, in a word, main- 
tained, instructed, and educated at the public expense. 

"In furtherance of the first object, Fanny prepared a 
course of Lectures on Knoivledge, which she delivered in 
the principal cities of the Union. She thought that she 
possessed advantages in the fact tliat she was a wom.an ; 
for there would, for that reason, be a greater curiosity to 
hear her, and she would be permitted to speak with 
greater boldness and directness against the clergy and 
superstition than would be one of the other sex. 

"The great measure, however, on which Fanny and 



70 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

her friends relied for ultimate success, was the system 
of public schools. These schools were intended to 
deprive, as well as to relieve, parents of all care and 
responsibility of their children after a year or two years 
of age. It was assumed that parents were, in general, 
incompetent to train up their children, provide proper 
establishments, teachers and governors for them, till they 
should reach the age of majority. 

" The aim was, on the one hand, to relieve marriage 
of its burdens, and to remove the principal reasons for 
making it indlssoluhle ; and, on the other hand, to pro- 
vide for bringing up all children, in a rational manner, 
to be reasonable men and women, that \», free from super- 
stition, free from all belief in God and immortality, free 
from all regard for the invisible, and make them look 
upon this life as their only life, this earth as their only 
home, and the promotion of their earthly interests and en- 
joyments as their only end. The three great enemies to 
earthly happiness were held to be religion, marriage, or 
family and private property. Once get rid of these three 
institutions, and we may hope soon to realize our earthly 
j)aradise. For religion is to be substiti;ted science, that 
is, science of the world, of the five senses only ; for pri- 
vate property, a community of goods ; and for private 
families, a community of wives. 

" Fanny Wright and her school saw clearly that their 
principles could not be carried into practice in the present 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 71 

state of society. So they proposed them to be adopted 
only by a future generation, trained and prepared in a 
system of schools founded and sustained by the Public. 
They placed their dependence on education in a system 
of Public Schools, managed after a plan of William Phi- 
quepal, a Frenchman, and subsequently the husband of 
Fanny Wright. 

" In order to get their system of schools adopted, they 
proposed to organize the whole Union, secretly, very 
much on the plan of the Carbonari of Europe, The 
members of this secret society were to avail themselves 
of all the means in their power, each in his own locality, 
to form public opinion in favor of education by the State 
at the public expense, and to get such men elected to the 
Legislatures as would be likely to favor their purposes. 
This secret organization commenced in the State of New 
York, and was to extend over the whole Union. Mr. O. 
A. Brownson was one of the agents for organizing the 
State of New York. He, however, became tired of the 
work, and abandoned it after a few months." 

" The attention of so-called philanthropic men in all 
parts of the country, was directed to the subject. In 
1817, and the following years, commenced what has 
been improperly termed a revival of education. To form 
public opinion in favor of Public Schools, the following 
means were employed : Public School societies and or- 



72 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDTTCATION. 

ganlzations were established in New York, Philadelphia, 
Boston, Portland, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Worcester, Hart- 
ford, Lowell, Providence, Cincinnati, etc. ; Thomas H. 
Gallaudet, James G. Carter, and Walter R. Johnson, 
made great efforts through the press ; there were estab- 
lished the ' American Journal of Education,' in January, 
1820, and the 'American Annals of Education.' Con- 
ventions were held throughout New England from 1826 
to 1830, in behalf of Public Schools; lectures were de- 
livered in every precinct in the States, on the subject of 
education ; there were also established local school peri- 
odicals, as well as others of a more general character, to 
contribute towards forming public opinion in favor of 
Public Schools, in every corner of the country. All 
these means, and the zealous and unwearied efforts of 
Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and others, have contrib- 
uted towards the success in establishing the Public 
Schools in our country." — American Encyclopoedia. 

This is a brief history of the Public Schools. 
It tells, in clear terms, all that they are, and all 
that they are to bring about, namely : a gener- 
ation without belief in God and immortality, free 
from all resrard for the invisible — a sreneration 
that looks upon this life as their only life, this 
earth as their only home, and the promotion of 
their earthly interests and enjoyments as their 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 73 

only end — a generation that looks upon religion, 
marriage, or family and private property as the 
greatest enemies to worldly happiness — a gener- 
ation that substitutes science of this world for 
religion, a community of goods for private prop- 
erty, a community of wives for private family ; 
in other words, a generation that substitutes the 
devil for God, hell for heaven, sin and vice for 
virtue and holiness of life. 

We may, then, confidently assert ^hat the defend- 
ers and upholders of Public Schools without relig- 
ion seek in America, as well as in Europe, to turn 
the people into refined Pagans. They recently 
betrayed themselves. They wish, as Dr. Weh- 
renphennig and Dr. Wirgow openly said, for an 
equalization of religious contradictories, a religion 
and an education which stands above creeds, and 
knows nothing about dogmas ; in other words, they 
wish for a religion of which a certain poet says : 
" My religion is to have no religion." The object, 
then, of these godless, irreligious Public Schools 
is to spread among the people the worst of relig- 
ions, the no religion, the religion which pleases 
most hardened adulterers and criminals — the re- 
lig-ion of irrational animals. How far this diabol- 



74 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ical scheme has succeeded is well known, for there 
are at present from twenty to twenty-five millions 
of people in the United States who profess no 
distinct religious belief. Everywhere the same 
effects have been observed. Licentiousness, cru- 
elty, and vice — "Positivism," or the substitu- 
tion of the harlotry of the passions for the calm 
and elevating influences of reason and religion. 
How can it be otherwise ? 




CHAPTER IV. 



EXPOSE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



^ i 



[T is a fundamental principle of Chris- 
tianity, admitted even by Protestants, 
that man cannot reach his destiny with- 
out a knowledore of the relio;ion which Jesus 
Christ taught, and which He sealed with His 
precious Blood. Now this ftindamental principle 
is virtually ignored in our present school system, 
which proposes to educate without religion. 
The whole course of instruction is imparted with- 
out any reference to religion, without any of those 
occasional observations that are so necessary in our 
days, and especially in this country, in order to 
explain the seeming inconsistencies between sci- 
entific facts and the doctrines of faith. Instruc- 
tion, to be useful, must show that the discover- 
ies of science are, as is really the case, evidences 
(75) ' 



76 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of religion. It must show the harmony that ex- 
ists between history and philosophy and the 
truths of faith. Secular knowledge should be 
the handmaid of religion; but no religion, no 
knowledge of God, is permitted to be taught in 
these schools. 

Let a stranger, say an educated Pagan, enter 
one of our public schools; will he discover sign, 
symbol or token of any kind to indicate that 
either the teacher or children are Christians ? Or 
suppose this Pagan, or a Turk, or Atheist sends 
children there to be educated, they can do so 
with perfect safety to their Pagan, Mohammedan, 
or infidel superstitions or opinions. They will 
not, through the whole course of instruction, 
hear a prayer, a lecture, or a single advice, les- 
son, or precept of the Church ; they will, as far 
as the State plan of teaching extends, remain ig- 
norant of the "holy name of God," or the Blessed 
Trinity, or the Lord's Prayer, or the Ten Com- 
mandments, or the Gospels, or the death and 
sufferings of our Lord, or the resurrection of the 
bod}^ or a future state of reward and punishment. 
N'o prayer is offered up or even permitted to be 
tauffht to those little ones whom our Lord loves 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 77 

SO tenderly. The teacher is not even permitted 
by law to explain what is meant by the term " our 
Saviour," " our Redeemer " ! 

Should a child ask, in a reading-lesson, what 
" our Lord and Saviour " meant, the teacher must 
tell him : " Hush ! if you want to know that you 
must ask somebody out of school ! We don't 
teach anything about religion here ! We have 
no Lord, or God, or Saviour here ! " 

Li reference to this manner of educating the 
youth of America, the Protestant Bishop of Ten- 
nessee said some time ago : 

"The secular system took no notice of God or of 
Christ, or of the Church of the Living God, or, except 
in the most incidental way, of God's Holy Word. The 
intellect was stimulated to the highest degree, but the 
heart and the affections were left uncultivated. It was a 
system which trained for the business of life, not for the 
duties of life. As there were differences of opinion 
about Christianity, it was not allowed to be spoken of, 
and a knowledge of it was not one of the qualifications 
for a teacher. A man might be a Mohammedan or a 
Hindoo if he were only a proficient in geography, arith- 
metic, or the exact sciences. The teachers in the nor- 
mal schools might be infidels provided they did not 



78 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 

openly inculcate their scepticism ; and, in point of fact, 
in the schools which were designed to train teachers 
only, a vast majority were not Christians." 

The school-books must be made unchristian 
lest they give offence to the countless sects of 
Protestantism. Voltaire, Paine, or Renan may be 
read in the Public Schools, but nothing of God. 

If our Public Schools differ in anv deo^ree from 
the ancient heathen, it is to our greater shame 
and confusion, and to their advantage. They 
taught piety to " their gods ; " we ignore the true 
God altogether, and bring the false gods of the 
heathens down to earth to be made the slaves and 
instruments of our sensual gratifications. Thus 
the mind of the child is, and remains, a religious 
void ; at least, there is but a religious mist in his 
intellect. The child even unlearns, in the society 
of the school, whatever principles of religion he 
may have learned from his parents. 

The present common school system of educa- 
tion necessarily begets contempt of religion. 
Men trained under such a system learn to look 
upon religion as a dress which is to be worn only 
on Sunday, and to be laid aside during the rest 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 79 

of the week; they look upon religion as something 
which may do very well in the church, or in the 
meeting-house, but which is entirely out of place 
in business, in society, and in the daily transac- 
tions of life. The child has logic enoug-h to 
think that he is taught whatever is necessary for 
his future career, and that religion must not 
be necessary, otherwise it would be taught in 
school. 

And what will the child learn, in this Pagan 
system of education, to press down his rising pas- 
sions ? What precept of positive virtue does he 
learn? What principle of self-restraint? What 
does be learn in such a school to make him obe- 
dient, honest, chaste, a good citizen, a good 
Christian? The common school system proceeds 
on the principle of suffering the passions of youth 
to take any development which fallen nature may 
bring about, and then trusting to a riper age for 
a change for the better, just as if it were possible 
" to gather grapes of briars, or figs of thorns." 

In these Public Schools the whole education of 
children is directed to the cultivation of their 
heads or intellectual faculties alone. The heart, 
with all its moral and mysterious emotions, is en- 



80 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

tirely neglected. Every ment:il jiower and ac- 
quirement is intended and directed to promote 
their prosperity, success, and happiness in this 
life ; at least this is what is sought and promised 
as the reward of study and application. They 
are constantly presented with the bright side of 
the world. Scientific knowledge, they are 
taught, will do away with the old drudgery of 
labor, and bring the acquirement of wealth and 
honor within the reach of all, no matter how 
poor or humble the condition of their fathers or 
mothers. They have all, no doubt, read the 
Declaration of Independence, and learned that all 
men are created free and equal. They have 
shared the equal bounty of the State in the way 
of education, and have, in the language of the day, 
"an equal right on the world for a living." 

I ask if this is not a pretty fair and not overdrawn 
statement of the case? You will bear in mind 
that all this time the free-and-easy social inter- 
course of the sexes is sroina; on : that while their 
studies and exercises are strictly confined to dry, 
secular knowledge, or such other pursuits as 
might excite their vanity, pride, or imagination, 
not one line or lesson, caution or command, as 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



81 



stated before, is used or administered to curb or 
control the natural, I might say inevitable, cry 
of the youthful passions clamoring for their grat- 
ification. 





CHAPTER V. 

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 
SYSTEM ON THE MALE PORTION OF SOCIETY. 

ET US now suppose the youug men edu- 
cated under the present Public School 
system fairly launched iato the world, 
and, for the first time, thrown on their own re- 
sources. They are all well, indeed over-educated. 
The greater part of their families are necessarily 
in poor or moderate circumstances. Will their 
learned and accomplished sons take the humble 
and laborious trades or occupations of their 
fathers? I fear not. We should not expect 
more from human nature than there is in it. All 
these fine young public school graduates cannot 
get nice situations as clerks, professors, editors, 
teachers, etc., etc., and the professions are all 
full to overflowing. 

You must remember that, as I have said, not 
(82) 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 83 

one of the boys have ever been taught the 
first principle, prayer, or moral duty. They 
are, as far as the Public School-training went, 
perfectly ignorant of the Divine law as rule of our 
life ; they are, in fact, but educated apes or ani- 
mals. How can this young man reconcile " pov- 
erty and wealth," "labor and ease," "sickness 
and health," "adversity and prosperity," "rich 
and poor," "obedience and authority," "liberty 
and law," etc., etc. All these are enigmas to 
him, or, if he affects to understand them at all, 
he thinks they arise from bad management or bad 
government, and can and ought to be remedied 
by repression or sumptuary legislation. He will 
be a tyrant or slave, a glutton or miser, a fanatic 
or libertine, a sneak-thief or highway robber, as 
circumstances may influence him. Think you 
that the common "fall back" on principle of self- 
interest — well or ill understood — will ever re- 
strain such a one from doing any act of impulse 
or indulgence, provided he thinks it can be safely 
done ? He will look on life as a game of address 
or force, in which the best man is he who carries 
off the prize. 

He will look upon power as belonging of right 



84 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

to the strongest ; the weak, or those who differ 
from him in opinion, he will treat Avith contempt 
and cruelty, and will think they have no rights he 
is bound to respect. In power, such a man will 
be arbitrary and cruel ; out of power, he will be 
faithless, hypocritical and subservient. Trust 
him with authority, he will abuse it ; trust him 
with money, he will steal it; trust him with your 
confidence, and he will betray it. Such a man — 
Pagan and unprincipled as he is — may nevertheless 
afiect, when it suits his purpose, great religious 
zeal and purity. He will talk of " Philanthropy " 
and the ^^ Humanities ^''^ have great compassion, 
perhaps, for "a dray-horse," and give the cold 
shoulder to the houseless pauper or orphan. 

The heart of such a man is cold, insincere, des- 
titute of every tender chord for a tender vibra- 
tion, of every particle of right or just feeling or 
principle that can be touched ; on the contrary, it 
is roused to rage, revenge and falsehood if inter- 
fered with. How is such a heart to be touched 
or moved, or placed under such influences as 
could move it? Indeed, it would require a 
miracle ! Nay, even a miracle would fail to 
make a salutary impression upon such a heart. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 85 

A French infidel declared that, should he be told 
that the most remarkable miracle was occurring 
close by his house, he would not take a step out 
of his way to see it. Pride never surrenders ; 
it prefers rather to take an illogical position than 
to bow even to the authority of reason. Furious, 
beside itself, and absurd, it revolts against evi- 
dence. To all reasoning, to undeniable evidence, 
the infidel — the man without religion — opposes 
his own will : " Such is my determination." It 
is sweet to him to be stronger, single-handed, than 
common sense, stronger than miracles, than even 
the God who manifests Himself by them. 

Such a man is always in favor of strong govern- 
ment, provided he can get to run it. He will 
talk h)udly of loyalty and the " life of the nation.''^ 
He Avorships the State, because, to his gross ani- 
mal understanding, it represents ^0M7er, and makes 
money his God, because it gives him this power. 
Such a man may be called civilized, but he is 
only an accomplished barbarian. His head and 
hands are instructed, his heart, and low passions 
and appetites, unbridled and untamed. Such a 
man can never be made to understand the beauti- 
ful and benign principles of our republican form 



86 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of government. Like all brutes, he relies on force, 
and tries and judges every issue by success. What 
he calls ^^ the final arbitrament of arms " is to such 
a one a righteous decision, provided always it be 
in his favor. He may aifect the demagogue, and 
talk loudly about the power of the people, but 
you will observe that this refers to them en masse, 
in the whole or concrete. He cannot understand 
the individual man as entitled to any consideration 
or rights (unless he happened to be made rich) 
independently of the State. Indeed, he looks 
upon poor men as made for the State, and it can 
be only on this ground that he claims the children 
as its property — " children of the State " ! ! He 
insists on educating them by the State, and for the 
State, and not for the comfort and support of their 
fathers and mothers, nor that they should thereby 
fulfil the immortal destiny for which they were 
created. He holds the life, the dignity, the com- 
fort or happiness of the family or individual as 
nought in the balance against ^Hhe life, the power, 
the ivealth and glory of the nation" " Perish the 
People — live the State"; this is his motto, and 
such have ever been the principles and motto of 
all Pagans from the beginning. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYS- 
TEM ON THE FEMALE PORTION OF SOCIETY. 




HAT I have said in the preceding chap- 
ter is but a faint picture of the bad ef- 
fects of what is called polite education, 
as given in the Public Schools, on the male portion 
of society. It is with some reluctance that I am 
now going to trace the same evil influence in its 
still more injurious consequences on the female 
portion. It is very difficult to treat this part of 
the subject with the necessary freedom, not only 
on account of its intrinsic delicacy, but also be- 
cause of that false (and indeed to themselves in- 
jurious) idea that there is nothing wanting to the 
absolute perfection of our women. 

Let it not be said, that in calling public atten- 
tion to these evil consequences on the female por- 
(87) 



88 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION'. 

tion of the community, we are overstepping the 
boundaries of propriety or decency. There is a 
license for the poet ; a license for the stage ; a 
license for the bar ; a license for the writer of fic- 
tion ; a license for the press, and why should 
there not be a license for a Christian writer? It 
is high time for true modesty to take the place of 
that false modestij which has driven virtue, like 
an exile, out of the land, and peopled it largely 
with Fourrierites, Owenites, and other socialists 
and free-lovers. 

Now, whatever success a "godless system of 
education " may have on boys, I think all must 
admit that it must prove not only a failure, but a 
positive injury, to girls. It is not that moral and 
religious education is not equally required by 
both, in a spiritual sense, but that women, in an 
especial manner, have certain duties assigned 
them, in the Order of Providence, of so high and 
holy a character, that it requires, in some sense, 
a special education to fit them for the faithful dis- 
charge of these duties. 

Let us remember that the Public School-girls 
of to-day will be the mothers of to-morrow. 
Mothers are called by God to take particular care 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 89 

of the bodily and spiritual life of their children. 
This care is a heavy, a very heavy burden indeed, 
and mothers cannot carry this burden without a 
tender love for their children. Now God has 
made the love of mothers for their cliildreu a 
necessary love. It is for this reason that there is 
no command in the Divine Law for parents to 
love their children, whilst, on the., contrary, chil- 
dren are commanded to love their parents. Love 
towards one's own offspring is a love so deeply 
planted in the heart by Nature herself, that the 
wild beasts never fail to love their young. It is 
said that even tigers, hearing the cry of their 
whelps when they are taken by the hunters, will 
plunge into the sea to swim after the vessels 
where they are confined. 

A mother's love is proverbial. Indeed, there 
is no love so pure and so thoroughly disinterested 
as the love of a good mother for her child. Her 
love knows no change ; brothers and sisters have 
forgotten each other ; fathers have proved unfor- 
giving to their children ; husbands have been 
false to their wives, and wives to their husbands, 
and children too often forget their parents ; but 
you rarely hear of a mother forgetting even her 



90 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ungrateful, disobedient children, whose notions 
have lacerated her heart, and caused dark shad- 
ows to glide before her eyes, and enter her very 
soul. Still there are moments when her faithful 
heart yearns towards them ; there are moments 
when the reminiscences of the happy past obliter- 
ate the present sorrow, and the poor wounded 
spirit is cheered for a while, because there is still 
one of the fibres of the root of hope left in her 
forlorn breast, and a languid smile will flit over 
her wan and prematurely faded face. Yes, she 
forgives, though there is no River Lethe for her 
to drink from in this life ; showing that her love 
is the most pure in this world, and the nearest 
approach to the love that God has so graciously 
bestowed upon her. 

Some years ago a vessel sailed from the coast 
of Ireland. It was filled with passengers who 
were coming to this country to better their futiu-e. 
The vessel set sail with a favorable wind. The 
sky was clear, and the sun shone gayly upon the 
sparkling sea. But suddenly the heavens grew 
dark. A fierce storm arose. The winds howled 
madly around the vessel. The ship was hurried 
on — on, till it was dashed against the rocks. The 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 91 

wild, surging waves daslied over it. The vessel 
split in twain. Part remained hanging amid the 
rocks, and the rest sank, with those on board, be- 
neath the waves, far down into the depth of the 
sea. The storm continued to rage for several 
days. At last, when the wind had died away, 
some hardy fishermen, who lived on the coast, 
took a skiff and rowed out to the wreck. They 
entered the part of the vessel that remained hang- 
ing amid the rocks. They broke open the cabin 
door. They heard distinctly the feeble wail of a 
child. They rushed in. They found a little babe 
lying upon the breast of its dead mother. The 
child was eagerly sucking the blood which oozed 
from a large wound in its mother's breast. The 
mother had died of cold and hunger ; but, even 
amid her fearful sufferings, she did not* forget her 
child. She took a sharp knife, and, with the won- 
derful love of a mother's heart, she made a deep 
gash in her breast, in order that her child might 
preserve its life by drinking her own heart's 
blood ! 

And when the darling child of the Christian 
mother is on the point of death, ah ! how tender 



92 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

is not her prayer to the Author of Life that He 
spare the child. 

"Oh, God of mercy," she prays, "spare my 
child ! Heaven is already full of light and glad- 
ness. Do not then take to heaven the light and 
joy of my heart. Thou art ever happy, O my 
God ! do not then deprive me of my only happi- 
ness. God of compassion, O leave me the sweet 
babe whom Thou hast given me ! my love, and all 
my happiness, is centred in him. Since he has 
come to me, the earth, and sea, and sky, the 
whole world around has grown doubly beautiful. 
The air seems filled with light, and song, and 
sweetness. Ah, do not take my child away, for 
when his tender body lies beneath the sod, my 
heart and life shall lie there with it, and this whole 
world shall grow dark and dreary as one vast 
gloomy graveyard. O God ! remember I am 
yet so young. I am not used to tears. Deal 
gently with my poor weak heart ! I have never 
yet known what it is to lose a friend, a relative, 
or beloved one. O God ! shall, then, the first that 
teaches me the dread meaning of grave and shroud 
be my own, my first-born child? O Jesus, I 
conjure Thee, by Thy wounded Heart — wounded 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 93 

for love of me — do not crush my tender heart, for 
Thou hast made it tender. Thou hast made me a 
mother ; oh, spare my darling child ! " 

Ah ! who can measure the depth of the wonder- 
ful love of a mother's heart ! But this natural 
love of a mother for her offspring, in order to be 
persevering and untiring, must be cultivated — 
must be ennobled and supernaturalized by relig- 
ious education ; otherwise this love will decrease, 
and be lost in the end, and with the loss of this 
love the Christian woman has lost her divine 
calling. Now as no religious education is im- 
parted to the girls in the Public Schools, can we 
wonder to see thousands and thousands of them 
who have lost their divine calling — can we won- 
der that we hear of a countless number of unnat- 
ural crimes, committed under the veil of mar- 
riage, that are becoming so common at the 
present day? Dr. Storer, of Massachusetts, de- 
clares that increase of children in Massachusetts 
is limited almost wholly to the foreign population. 
Mr. Warren Johnson, State Superintendent of 
Common Schools in Maine, reports to the Legis- 
lature a decrease of 16,683, between the ages of 
four and twenty-one years, from the census of 



94 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

1858. Total decrease from maximum of 18G0 is 
nearly 20,000. Mr. Johnson asks: "Are the 
modern fashionable criminalities of infanticide 
creeping into our State community?" Dr. H. R. 
Storer, of Massachusetts, in 1859, declared that 
forced abortions in America were of frequent oc- 
currence, and that this frequency Avas increasino" 
so, that from 1 in 1,633 of the population in 1805, 
it had risen to 1 in 340 in 1849; and Dr. Kyle, 
of Xenia, Ohio, asserted that abortions occurred 
most frequently among those who are known as 
the better class ; among church members, and 
those generally who pi-etend to be the most polite, 
virtuous, moral and reb'gious. And, without 
mincing matters at all, this eminent physician 
boldly declares that "a venal press, a demoralized 
clergy, and the prevalence of medical charlatanism, 
are the principal causes of the fearful increase of 
this abominable crime." The paucity of children 
in the families of wealthy and well-to-do Amer- 
icans has been publicly noticed and commented 
upon time and again ; but the true cause thereof, 
if known, was carefully concealed. And can we 
wonder that the crime has descended from the 
highest to the lowest, and now pervades all classes 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 95 

of society ? Statistics have been frequently pub- 
lished to show that in certain States of the Union, 
and in certain districts of those States, the births 
did not, and do not, equal the deaths ; and were 
it not for the foreign population among us many 
of those districts, and not a few of those States, 
would be depopulated in a few years. Massa- 
chusetts and New York lead the van in this 
criminal record. Dr. T. A. Reamy, of Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, in 1867, wrote, that after a careful 
survey of the field he was ready to say that 
"to-day no sin approaches with such stealth and 
dangerous power the altars of the Church as foeti- 
cide ; and, unless it can be stayed, not only will 
it work its legitimate moral depravity and social 
ruin, but (he believed) God will visit dreadful 
judgment upon us no less severe, perhaps, than 
He did upon the Cities of the Plain." 

In 1865, Dr. Morse Stewart, of Detroit, Michi- 
gan, declared that few of either sex entered the 
marital relation without full information as to the 
ways and means of destroying the legitimate re- 
sults of matrimony. And among married persons 
so extensive has this practice become, that people 
of high repute not only commit this crime, but do 



96 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

not even blush to speak boastingly among their 
intimates of the deed, and the means of accom- 
plishing it. 

Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, Mass., at a 
meeting of the Social Science Association, Bos- 
ton, entitled" Wanted— More Mothers," remarked 
"that the increase of population for twenty-five 
years has been mainly in cities and towns, and it 
will be found to be largely made up of foreign 
element ; and in the smaller villages, chiefly 
American, the stock has hardly increased at all. 

"We find there are absolutely more deaths 
than births among the strictly American children ; 
so that, aside from immigration, and births of 
children of foreign parentage, the population of 
Massachusetts is really decreasing. 

"Another foct developed by report is, that 
whereas, in 1765, nearly one-half of the popula- 
tion of Massachusetts was under fifteen years of 
age, it is believed that, at the present time, not 
more than one-fflh of the purely American popu- 
lation is under that age. In an equal number of 
American and foreign families, the births will be 
nearly three times as many in the latter as in the 
former. In some of the old towns, the records of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 97 

a hundred years do not show a single instance of 
a married couple without children. The New 
York census of 1865 shows that, out of nine hun- 
dred and ninety-three thousand two hundred and 
thirty-six married women, one hundred and thirty- 
seven thousand seven hundred and forty-five had 
no children, and three hundred and thirty-three 
thousand only had one or two. 

" In the small town of Billerica, there are ninety 
families with ten or more children ; five of these 
had fourteen, and one twenty-one : the total in 
the ninety families is ten hundred and ninety- 
three. The birth-rates show that American fam- 
ilies do not increase at all, and the inspection of 
the registration in other States shows that the 
same remark applies to all." 

Many parts of Vermont are undergoing a grad- 
ual depopulation. Sandgate had a population of 
1,187 in 1810, and 805 in 1860. 

The town of Rupert had a population of 1,848 
in 1800, which had diminished to 1,103 in 1860. 

The town of Arlington was settled in the year 
1762. In the year 1800 all the arable and pas- 
turage land was occupied, and the inhabitants 
7 



98 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

numbered 1,569. In 1830 the number had de- 
creased to 1,207, and in 1860 to 1,146. 

Mrs. A. B. Boone says, in her book " The In- 
crease of Crime," "I have frequently heard women 
say 'I don't mind having one or two children, but 
no more for me.' When I first heard these ex- 
pressions I thought it merely a joke, but even- 
tually I found out they meant what they said, and 
I was amazed. And when these women do con- 
descend to have one or two children, what sort of 
a lifelong inheritance are they giving their off- 
spring? ill-health even unto death. Frequently I 
come in contact with women of thirty, and even 
twenty-five, so debilitated that they arc far more 
fit for hospitals than to fill the sacred oflice of 
either wife or mother. 

"I am sorry to add that the crime of cJiild- 
murder is carried on to the greatest extent among 
the wealthy. In Cambridgeport, a medical lady 
informed me that she was continually applied to 
for this purpose, and always refused in the most 
decided manner; but, to her knowledge, one 
woman performed, on an average, from a hundred 
to a hundred and fifty cases in a week. And yet 
churches abound in this place. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 99 

" The E,ev. Dr. Todd has written two most 
truthful lectures, one entitled ' Fashionable Mur- 
ders,' and the other 'A Cloud with a Dark 
Lining.' His revelations with regard to the de- 
termination that the Americans evince not to 
have children, is fearfully true, more especially 
among the women. 

"Speaking of having children, reminds me of a 
circumstance that happened some fifteen years 
ago. I had a letter of introduction to a lady who 
wished to engage my children to read at a party 
she was about to give. She received me with an 
air of melancholy politeness, at the same time in- 
forming me that the gathering was postponed, as 
dear little Fanny was 'real sick.' I saw a wine- 
glass and teaspoon on the table by the side of the 
sofa, which had a small blanket on it bound with 
sky-blue ribbon, covering up something that 1 
supposed to be a sick child. I approached, and 
gently drew aside the blanket. I jumped back — 
it was a poodle-dog, whose black eyes winked at 
me as if about to cry : a sort of appeal for sym- 
pathy shone in its glowing orbs. I was almost 
convulsed with laughter, it was so unexpected. 
When able to speak, I said, 'Pardon me, madam, 



100 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

for laughing; but I thought it was a baby.' She 
replied inclignautly, 'Oh, dear, no ! I never had a 
baby ; nor I don't want one either ! ' And it 
would be a blessing, I say, if such women as 
these never became mothers. When I was a 
young girl, and heard people say they hated chil- 
dren, and saw them fondling dogs, and feeding 
kittens with a spoon because the old cat was too 
weak to attend to so many, and knew, at the 
same time, that poor human mothers were com- 
pelled (just as slaves once were) to separate from 
their husbands and children when poverty de- 
manded that they should go into the ' Union,'' or, 
rather, Diswmoxx — I say, when I pondered on 
these things, thoughts would flit through my 
mind, whether, when death severed the body 
from the souls of these people, that their spirits 
were not instantly infused into cats and dogs, and 
that they came back in those shapes as a penance 
for their brutality to mankind, and their loving- 
kindness to brutes. However, we never went to 
the party. The woman remarked to a friend 
that she thought me devoid of all feeling, to 
laugh at a little, sick, innocent dog ! 

" Three doors from the rooms I lived in is the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 101 

stylish house of Dr. and Mrs. Grindle, where 
there are hundreds of ' fashionable murders ' 
committed yearly. And twice the papers have 
teemed wath accounts of the unhappy mothers 
dying, and on the last occasion the child was not 
to be found, although born alive — and nothing 
done to either the doctor or his lady ! " 

A gentleman of one of the smaller towns of 
Connecticut writes to the Independent as follows : 
"I have just read, with great interest, your edi- 
torial on the 'Murder of Helplessness.' The 
paper will go into hundreds of families where the 
crime is practised, to bear witness against it ; for, 
thank God; it is fashionable to take the Inde- 
pendent. For more than a year it has been on 
my mind to write to you upon this question. 
You will have the thanks of every well-wisher of 
the human race. But you make a great mistake 
v/hen you speak of the crime of foeticide as being 
confined to the large cities. It prevails all over 
the country. I dare not tell you what I know — 
and the information has been given me unso- 
licited — in reference to this horrid practice in 
the land. I do not believe there is a village in 
the New England States but this crime is prac- 



102 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

tised more or less. There are men who make it 
their business, with medicine and instruments, 
to cany on this slaughter. And even M.D.'s 
(physicians) in good and regular standing in the 
church have practised it. Men are making here, 
in this highly moral State, |3,000 and $4,000 a 
year in the small towns alone, at this business. 
Their patients are from the highly religious and 
fashionable to the low and vicious. Their scale 
of charges is according to the cupidity and size of 
purse of the victims. Delicate females go, in the 
dead of night, dressed in masculine attire, to 
avoid detection, to obtain the means to hide their 
shame. The cause of the evil lies in 'lust, which 
is as near to the murder as fire to smoke.' The 
demoralization of the people at large, in the 
practice of licentiousness, furnishes a topic of the 
greatest anxiety to the philanthropist. When 
American women lose their shame, the race is 
lost — church-membership is no bar. The conti- 
nence of man and the chastity of woman is the 
only hope." 

Trustworthy physicians assure us there are not 
less than sixty ghouls (gules) in New York City, 
who grow rich by killing infants. We have seen 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 103 

the number stated at six times sixty. Those who 
have passed through Fifth Avenue, New York, 
nuist have noticed a magnificent dwelling, or 
rather palace, in the neighborhood of the Central 
Park. It was built by a certain doctress who 
has acquired her wealth by the murder of helpless 
innocents. 

The unhappy victims of these ghouls are not 
generally of the low and debased sort. Most of 
these illegitimate mothers are of the educated 
classes, many of them, shocking to say, under 
the age of fifteen; many of them delicate, sensi- 
tive females, who make use of these unhallowed 
means to hide their shame from the eyes of their 
friends and relatives. 

The number of marriages (outside the Catholic 
Church) has largely decreased within the past 
few years. The crime of infanticide is largely 
increasing. A certain species of it is practised 
in the first families, and the drugs and imple- 
ments for committing such murders are publicly 
sold everywhere. Physicians advertise publicly, 
offering their services to enable people, as they 
say, "to enjoy the pleasures of marriage without 
the burden." At least 25,000 foeticides are an- 



104 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

nually committed. How to preserve their looks, 
and how to avoid having children, seem to be the 
chief aim of many women nowadays. In the 
upper classes of society, in some of our large 
cities, a lady who is the mother of more than two 
children is looked upon as unfashionable. 

The author of the book " Satan in Society " 
writes, on page 130-131, as follows: "A medical 
writer of some note published, in 1861, a pam- 
phlet, in which he declared himself the hero of 
three hundred abortions," He admits, in a work 
of his, that he only found abortion necessary to 
save the life of the mother in four instances, thus 
publicl}^ confessing that in an immense number 
of cases he has performed the operation on other 
grounds ; and yet, in the face of all this self-accu- 
sation, several attempts at his expulsion from his 
county medical society have been defeated, and 
he is accounted " a brother in good standing " of 
several learned bodies, and holds an enviable po- 
sition in a fashionable church and fashionable- 
society. This rascal walks unhung ; for this the 
"Medical Code" is primarily responsible, and 
after that the " ministers of the Gospel," the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 105 

" worshippers " in the churches, the dwellers in 
" south fronts." 

I have said above that the love of children has 
always been deemed a sign of superior intelli- 
gence — of noble manhood. Aifection for its off- 
spring is a quality possessed alike by all animals, 
with scarcely an exception ; and few indeed of the 
millions of the animal creation seek to destroy 
their own offspring after birth, or to so neglect 
them as to leave them liable to destruction by 
other bodies or forces. It was left for human in- 
telligences to encompass the death of their chil- 
dren, both before birth and after, and it was left 
to the anti-Christian civilization of this nineteenth 
century also to discover and adopt the most re- 
volting and barbarous means to accomplish this 
end. The crime of foeticide, or infanticide, is not 
of recent growth. Like every other crime, it has 
had a venerable existence, but its beastly develop- 
ment among us has been mainly the work of a few 
years. Thirteen years ago its prevalence attracted 
the attention of medical jurists in all parts of our 
country, and essays, tracts, and bound volumes 
were issued against it. But the crime grew apace, 
and its deadly and dastardly fruits appear before 



106 rUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

US to-day, sickening to the moral conscience and 
religious sentiments of the nation. 

And in view of the alarming increase of this 
crime of child-mnrder, the prediction of Dr. M. 
B.Wright to the Medical Society of Ohio, in 1860, 
will soon be fulfilled, namely : " The time is not 
far distant when children will be sacrificed among 
us with as little hesitation as among the Hindoos, 
unless w^e stop it here and now." 

The frightful increase of immorality, of unnat- 
ural crimes, in these latter years, and especially in 
those very States where the common school sys- 
tem of education is fully carried out, as in New 
England, proves, beyond doubt, that there is 
something essentially wrong in this system. Some 
years ago the public were startled by the shocking 
developments of depravity in one of the female 
Public Schools of Boston; so shocking, indeed, 
as almost to stagger belief. The Boston Times 
published the whole occurrence at the time, but 
after creating crreat excitement for a few weeks, 
the matter was quietly hushed up, for fear of in- 
juring the character of the common schools. 

Only a few years ago other startling transac- 
tions came to light in New York, involving the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 107 

character of some of the leading school commis- 
sioners, and some of the principal female teachers 
in the common schools. These scandals became 
so notorious, that they could be no longer blinked 
at or smothered, and several of the leading papers 
came out openly, to lash vice in high places. The 
Chicago papers assert openly that the Public 
Schools there are assignation houses, for boys 
and girls above a certain age. 

" It is but six or seven years ago that Mr. Wil- 
bur H. Storey, who owns the Ghicago Times — 
the paper, at that time, of largest circulation in 
Chicago — published in his paper, and sustained 
the assertion, that the Public School system in 
Chicago had become so corrupt, that any school- 
boy attending, who had reached fourteen years of 
age, was whistled at by his companions as a 
spooney, if he had not a liaison with some one or 
more of the Public School-girls ! 

"The Daily Sentinel, of Indianapolis, quoted 
Mr. Storey's articles, and said, with great regret, 
that it was only too true of Indianapolis also, 
judging by the wanton manners of troops of the 
girls attending Public Schools in Indianapolis." 

And there are but too many cities to which the 



108 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

same order of remark applies. Far be it from me 
to say that all the children of the Public Schools of 
any of these cities are corrupted. It is marvel- 
lous how some are protected from even the knowl- 
edge of vice, in these hot-beds of pollution. But 
the system of schools without the control of pos- 
itive religious teaching and discipline, tends only 
to one vile end. "We are assured, as .to the City 
of New York, that smart girls, even of most im- 
mature years, show their discontent at their neg- 
lected fate, from hearing girls only a few years 
older tell what " nice " acquaintances they have 
made on the streets, or in the cars, going or com- 
ing, and what delicious lunches they have taken 
with these " gentlemen " at restaurants of most 
unquestionably bad repute. These things I have 
learned from a friend who heard them from mem- 
bers of the City Police, and from others that 
could not avoid the unhappy knowledge of the 
facts indicated. 

The moral character of the Public Schools in 
many of our cities has sunk so low, that even 
courtesans have disguised themselves as school- 
girls, in order the more surely to ply their foul 
avocation. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 109 

Does any one wonder, then, that we hear and 
read of " Trunk Horrors " ? Does any one won- 
der that we have divorces, despair, infanticides, 
foeticides, snicides, bagnios, etc., and that other 
class, I fear not less numerous, but certainly more 
dangerous, "iJAe assignation houses"? These you 
cannot "police," or " localize." They, like a sub- 
tle poison, circulate through all the veins and 
arteries of that society called in fashionable phrase 
"genteel," penetrating the vital tissues of the so- 
cial body, and corrupting, too often, the very foun- 
tains of life. 




CHAPTEE VII. 



WHAT IS IT TO BE A MOTHER? 




ET US again bear in mind that the Pub- 
lic School-girls of to-day will be the 
mothers of to-morrow. Mothers are 
destined, by God, to bring up children for heaven. 
This is their grand mission. What a happiness, 
what an honor for a mother to s^'ive angels to 
heaven ! Would to God she only knew the real 
dignity and importance of her mission, and com- 
prehended the qualifications in the moral and re- 
ligious order that best prepare her for the duties 
of her sublime calling ! What mission can be 
more sublime, more sacred, what mission can be 
more meritorious l)efore God than that of giving 
to the young child the primary lessons of religion? 
There is indeed nothing more honorable, noth- 
ing more meritorious, nothing which conducts to 
higher perfection, than to instruct children in their 
(110) 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. Ill 

religious duties. This instruction of children is a 
royal, apostolic, angelic, and divine function. 
Hoyal, because the oiEce of a king is to protect 
his jDeople from danger. Apostolic, because our 
Lord commissioned apostles to instruct the na- 
tions, and, as St. Jerome says, thus made them the 
saviours of men. Angelic, because the angelical 
spirits in heaven enlighten, purify, and perfect 
each other according to their spheres, and their 
earthly mission is to labor without ceasing for the 
salvation of man. St. Peter Chrysologus calls 
those who instruct others in the way of salvation, 
"the substitutes of angels." Indeed this mission 
of mothers is divine ; they are called to carry on 
the very work of God Himself. Everything that 
Almighty God has done from the creation of the 
world, and which He will continue to do to the 
end, has been, and will be, for the salvation of 
mankind. For this Pie sent His Son from heaven, 
who enlightened the world by His doctrine, and 
who still continues to instruct His people by His 
chosen disciples. Those mothers, then, who di- 
rect their children in the paths to heaven, who 
allure them from vice, who form them to virtue, 
may fitly be termed apostles, angels, and saviours. 



112 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Oh ! what glory awaits those mothers who per- 
form the office of angels, and even of God Him- 
self, in laboring for the salvation of the sonls of 
their children. If this employment is honorable 
for mothers, it is also not less meritorious for 
them. What is the religious instruction of chil- 
dren, but conferring on a class of our race, the 
weakest and most helpless, w^itli inconceivable 
labor and fatigue, the greatest of all blessings ? 
For while the physical development of the child 
advances with age, it is not so with the mental ; 
for religious instruction only can develop the 
noble faculties of the soul. The soul of a child, 
so to speak, would continue to live enshrouded 
in Pagan darkness, if the mother did not impart 
and infuse the lis^ht of truth. All the gold in the 
world is but dross in comparison with true relig- 
ious knowledge. 

Our Saviour says : " Whosoever shall give to 
drink to one of these little ones, even a cup of 
cold water, shall not lose his reward." — (Matt. x. 
42.) May we not infer that those mothers who 
bestow upon children the treasures of divine 
knowledge will receive an exceedingly great re- 
ward? If God. denounces so severely those who 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 113 

scandalize little children : " But he that shall scan- 
dalize one of these little ones, it were better for 
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 
and he were drowned in the depth of the sea " 
(Matt, xviii. 6), what recompense will mothers 
not receive who instruct and sanctify them? 

Mothers who give their efforts and means to 
this object, choose the surest way to appease the 
anger of God, and to insure their own salvation. 
They choose the best means of attaining a high 
degree of perfection. Almighty God gives to 
each one the graces proper to his vocation. 
Mothers, therefore, who are devoted to the relig- 
ious instruction of their children, must rest as- 
sured that God will give them extraordinary 
graces to arrive at perfection. "Whoever," says 
our Lord, "shall receive one such little child in 
My name, receiveth Me." — (Matt, xviii. 5.) Who- 
soever, then, believes that our Saviour will not al- 
low Himself to be surpassed in liberalit}^, must also 
believe that He will bestow His choicest blessings 
on those mothers who instruct their children in 
the knowledge of God and the love of virtue. 

What obligations have not the " angels " of 
children " who alwavs see the face of the Father 



114 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

who is in heaven " (Matt, xviii. 10), to pray for 
these mothers — their dear colleasrnes and char- 
itable substitutes, who perform their office and 
hold their place on earth. The children will 
pray for their mothers, and God can refuse nothing 
to the prayers of children, and their supplications 
will ascend with the prayers of the angels. 

Do you desire, O Christian mother, to be 
saved? Do you wish to acquire great treasures 
in heaven, and to attain great perfection in this 
life? — Employ yourself diligently in the religious 
instruction of 3^onr children. Do you wish to 
gain the love of our Lord, and to deserve His 
protection? — Teach your children to fear and love 
God ; you cannot do anything more pleasing to 
His Divine Heart. 

It is related in the Gospel that mothers 
brought to Him little children, that He might 
touch them. And the disciples rebuked them 
that brought them. And when Jesus saw it, He 
was much displeased, and said to them: "Suffer 
little children to come to me, and forbid them 
not : for of such is the kingdom of God ; and 
embracing them, and laying His hands on them, 
He blessed them." If Jesus was displeased with 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 115 

those who prevented little children from coming 
to Him, what love and tenderness will He not 
have for those mothers by whose means they 
come to Him ? 

Oh ! how consoled will they not be in their 
last hour, when they shall see the souls of those 
whom they prepared for heaven, accompanied by 
their good angels, surrounding their bed of death, 
forming, as it were, a guard to protect them from 
the snares and assaults of the enemy ! 

This is a happiness which those mothers may 
confidently expect who labor assiduously to give 
their children a good religious education. Ah ! 
would to God, I say once more, that mothers 
would understand their sublime mission on 
earth ! 

But it is just here that the difficulty lies : how 
can a mother give the child these early lessons of 
piety and devotion, if she has never learned 
them herself? How can she train it to raise its 
young heart to that Heavenly Father, and ask 
Him for His continued mercy and blessings, of 
whose name or law she has never been informed 
or instructed in the Public Schools? How can 
she impart to her child that knowledge which she 



116 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

herself has never learned in the Public Schools, 
and which she has always been taught to look 
upon as unnecessary? Can she teach the child 
to love God and keep His commandments, to hate 
sin, and avoid it for the love of God? — To love, 
honor, and obey its parents, not from natural mo- 
tives alone, but because, in so doing, it would love, 
honor, and obey God in the person of its father 
and mother, and have thus not only a great re- 
ward, and length of days here below, but also the 
joys of heaven above? This lesson the poor 
mother was never taught in the Public Schools. 
How can she teach her sweet child that it has an 
immortal soul, that God sees even the inmost 
thoughts of the soul, that it is this soul that sins 
by consenting to the evil inclinations of the heart ; 
that when the child is tempted to pride, gluttony, 
anger, disobedience, theft, lies, or any manner of 
uncleanness, even in thought as well as deed, that 
it must call on God and its good guardian anjrel 
to come to its assistance, and keep its soul from 
consenting, and its body from doing, any of those 
things that might offend its good God? All this 
the poor mother has not been taught in the Pub- 
lic Schools. The State claims the riixht to educate 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 117 

her, and it did not reo-ard this kind of knowledse 
necessary, else it would have provided it. 

Let us again bear in mind that the Public 
School-girls of to-day will be the women of to- 
morrow. 

The most majestic kingdom for woman to reign 
in is home. A woman nowhere looks more 
lovely, more truly great, more fascinating, and 
more really beautiful and useful, than when in her 
own house, surrounded b}^ her children, giving 
them what instruction she is capable of, or devis- 
ing some plan of intellectual entertainment. 
Depend on it that this is the grandest position in 
this world for a woman, and this home-audience 
is nearer and sweeter to the affectionate heart of 
a mother whose brain is properly developed, 
than all the applause and flatteries that the outer 
world can bestow. It is not in the court-room, 
the pulpit, and rostrum, but it is among the 
household con2freo:ation that woman's influence 
can achieve so much, and reign paramount. This, 
however, is not easily understood and practised 
by women who have been educated without re- 
liofion. And it is for this reason that such 



118 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

women cannot make faithful wives and tender 
mothers. 

Youns: ladies whose education has been devoid 
of moral and religious instruction, whose imagina- 
tion, always over-ardent and vivacious, has been 
still more stimulated by a class of exercises, pub- 
lic examinations, and studies better calculated to 
give them an unreal than a sober view of life, are 
not prepared to fulfil their divine mission on 
earth. An illustration of this truth is the fact 
that quite recently over six hundred personal ap- 
plications — mostly made by girls of from fifteen 
to twenty — were made in one day at the Grand 
Opera House in New York to fill places in the 
ballet and Oriental marches of the spectacle of 
Lalla Rookh. Assuredly this fact is evidence 
that the women in New York, like so many 
women in all quarters of the land, are unwilling 
to do the work which properly belongs to them to 
do, and prefer any shift, even the degrading one 
mentioned above, to honest household labor. 
There are thousands of ladies to whom the fol- 
lowing description, written by a lady herself, may 
well be applied : 

" How is it that there is not more nature iu the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 119 

present age, and less sophistication iu society, and 
that mothers do not teach their dausrhters to 
fit themselves for wives and mothers? for they 
all seem to be setting traps to get husbands. 
Why, the young ladies of the present day are 
quite ashamexi should they be ignorant of the 
name of the last new opera and its composer, but 
would feel quite indignant if they were asked 
whether they knew how to make good soup, or 
broil a beefsteak, or mend stockings. 

"Above all, you can notice in the young ladies 
of the present day a madness beyond description 
for dress, for balls, theatres, watering-places, and 
all kinds of worldly amusements ; you can see in 
tliem the greatest desire to appear ladies. They go 
and spend the whole day at the perfumer's, Avhere 
they purchase their complexion ; at the gold- 
smith's and the milliner's, where they get their 
figures. A few days ago, the father of one of 
these ladies had to pay a bill of forty-nine hun- 
dred dollars at the milliner's, for his daughter. 
The chief mental agony of the masses of the young 
women of the present day seems to be, who 
shall have the largest possible waterfall, the small- 
est bonnet, and make themselves the greatest 



120 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

fright. They do uothhioj from morning till night 
bnt read novels, and look at their white hands, or 
the passers-by in the street. They all seem to 
be senseless creatures, for their capacious brain 
soars no higher than dress, fashion, pleasure, com- 
fort of life. Were it not for their vain daughters, 
hundreds of parents at this moment would have 
a happier countenance, and not that careworn, 
wretched look that we so frequently see when 
honest people get in debt, incurred by living be- 
yond their means. Were it not for the extrav- 
agancy of young women, young men would not 
be afraid to marry, consequently would not be led 
into the temptations that they are in the single 
state, for marriage is one sure step towards mor- 
ality, and consequently tends to the decrease of 
crime. 

"Very many young ladies act as catch-traps, 
with their painted faces and affected sweetness, 
to lure young men into the swamps of iniquity. 

"I frequently read comments about servants not 
knowing and performing their proper duties ; in 
fact, of their incompetency to fill the office they 
apply for : and it is true. 

''In Boston, a short time ago, one hundred and 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 121 

eighty unfortunate girls were arrested in one night; 
and I doubt not that the greater portion of them 
could have once been respectable servants, but 
considered the office and name too loiv! Men 
think it no disgrace to become carpenters and 
masons, and it is certainly as respectable to clean 
a house, and keep it in order, as it is to build it. 
And what kind of a name have these girls now? 
What future have these women to look forward 
to? Generally the world's cold, nipping scorn, 
combined with ill-health and destitution. A girl 
would much rather work in a factory, or a ' sa- 
loon,' because she can be called 'Miss,' dress 
liner, and imagine she will be thought a lady I 
Poor girl ! It is this delusion, this false pride, 
that crowds the streets nightly with pretty young 
girls, some of whom count only twelve short sum- 
mers. With Hamlet, I exclaim, 'Oh, horrible! 
most horrible ! ' I lived in a house in which there 
was a girl, Annie C, not seventeen, and she at- 
tended in a restaurant. I once said to her, ' Why 
do you not take the situation of a seamstress, or a 
nurse in a gentleman's family? ' She turned upon 
me in the most insolent way, saying, 'Me be a 
servant ! That will do very well for Irish, or 



122 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Dutch, or English girls, but I am an American, 
and feel myself as good as anybody.'' 

"However, this girl afterwards went as a bal- 
let-girl at one of the lowest places in Boston ; and 
the last account I heard of her was, she Avas trav- 
elling with an Ethiopian troop alone. Poor young 
creature! what Avill be her end? The truth is, 
that after a girl is fifteen years old, in this country, 
she considers herself a person of sound Judgment, 
and the parents look up to these sprites with a 
sort of deferential fear. These girls arc simply 
living pictures walking about the earth, deriding 
everything they are incapable of understanding. 
And who could be charmed with such women ? 
with such ' Grecian Bends,' Grecian noses? The 
genuine well-bred woman will shine out from be- 
neath the plainest garb ; and shoddy vulgarity, 
even should it l)c incased in rubies and diamonds, 
will only be rendered the more obvious and con- 
spicuous to those who at a glance can discover 
the difference — to those who cannot be deceived, 
even by the radiant sparkling of these richest of 
gems." 

This sort of women wish to have the " women's 
rights." They would like, if they knew how, to 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 123 

turn the world upside down, and inside out. This 
great desire among a certain class of women, to 
have the world think that they possess masculine 
power, generally proceeds from persons who wish 
to create a sensation, and fail to do so in the sta- 
tion they belong to. When a woman wishes to 
go out of her natural element, she shows that her 
intellect is shallow, and she is desirous of being 
thought greater than her sex generally ; while, in 
reality, she discovers' to us her own littleness. 
These people seem to wish to be what it is im- 
possible for them ever to become — "men." 

"When God created man in his own image, He 
said, ^It is not good that man should live alone : 
I will make him a helpmeet.' Now, had God 
meant to create merely a coinpanion capable of 
following the same pursuits, and capable of the 
same herculean labors that evidently is meant to 
be man's clestinj^, why, He would have made an- 
other man. But no ! When God caused a deej) 
sleep to fall upon Adam, he took out one of his 
ribs, and made a wo^nan — a being in EVEEr way 
THE COMPLEMENT OF MAN. And, after they ate of 
the tree of knowledge, God said to the woman, 
'Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall 



124 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

RULE over thee.'' And unto Adam he said, ' Be- 
cause thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy 
wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I com- 
manded thee, saying, Thou shall not eat of it, 
cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt 
thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; ' thus plainly 
demonstrating to us, that man was meant to rule. 
Bear in mind that God was angry because Adam 
HEARKENED unto the voice of his wife ; and Adam 
called his wife Eve because she was the mother of 
all living. So it is clear to be seen, that woman 
was meant to attend to the duties of a mother in 
caring for her offspring, and man was intended to 
labor as the provider for her whom he chose as u 
helpmeet, as well as for the entire household. 
Woman has natural nourishment sent to her for 
the babe long before she is able to leave her couch. 
Does not all this prove to every thinking person 
that woman's sphere and calling are loklehj dif- 
ferent?'' 

The good and perfection of women consist in 
remaining contentedly in the place which God has 
assigned them, and in performing well the duties 
of their divine calling. If the hand wishes to be 
in the place of the eye, and the eye wishes to be 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 125 

where the hand is, they become burdensome, and 
disturb the good order and harmony of the body. 
Now it is the same with the members of the social 
body. If women are in the place, or engaged in 
the occupation which God has chosen for them, 
they enjoy a profound peace ; they rest under His 
protection ; they are nourished by His grace ; 
they are enriched by His blessings, and work out 
their eternal happiness with but little pain. 

This truth, however, is considered by many 
women as one of trifling importance ; they seem 
not to care as to whether they live up to their 
divine calling or not. The Holy Ghost, however, 
admonishes every one thus : " Let every man 
abide in the vocation to which he was called " 
(1 Cor. vii. 20) ; for, "Blessed is the man that 
shall continue in wisdom — and that considereth her 
ways in his heart." — (Eccles. xiv. 22, 23.) Blessed 
that woman who well considers her divine calling, 
penetrates into, and admires its greatness, and en- 
deavors, with all her strength and heart, to com- 
ply with all its duties. One of the most usual 
temptations which the arch-enemy of mankind 
makes use of to shake women's happiness, in the 
present day, is to excite in them disgust and dis- 



126 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

satisfactiou for their divine calling. Hence it is 
that we so often hear them complain of their state 
of life ; they fancy that, by changing their condi- 
tion of life, they shall fare better : yes, provided 
they changed themselves. Would to God they 
were sworn enemies of these useless, dangerous, 
and bad desires I God wills to speak to them 
amidst the thorns, and out of the midst of the 
bush (Exod. iii. 2), and they will Him to speak to 
them in'' the whistling of a gentle air.'" — (HI Kings, 
xix. 12.) They ought, then, tf) remain on board 
the ship in which they are, in order to cross from 
this life to the other ; and they ought to remain 
there willingly, and with affection. Let them not 
think of anything else ; let them not wish for 
that which they are not, but let them earnestly de- 
sire to be the very best of what they are. Let them 
endeavor to do their best to perfect themselves 
where they are, and bear courageously uU the 
crosses, light or heavy, that they may encounter. 
Let them believe that this is the leading principle, 
and yet the one least understood in the Christian life. 
Every one follows his own taste ; very few place 
their happiness in fulfilling their duty according to 
the pleasure of our Lord. What is the use of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 127 

building castles in Spain, when we are obliged to 
live in America? "As a bird that wandereth 
from her nest, so is a man that leaveth his place " 
(Prov. xxvii. 8), his occupation, or station of 
life. Let every woman remain firm in her calling, 
if she wishes to insure her tranquillity of mind, 
her peace of heart, her temporal and eternal 
happiness. 

To become unfaithful to their vocation is for 
women to suffer as many pangs as a limb which, 
through some accident, has been wrenched out of 
place. They are continually tormented by evil 
spirits, who have power over a soul that is out of 
its proper sphere. They are no longer under the 
protection of God, since they have withdrawn 
from His guidance, and voluntarily abandoned 
His watchful Providence. They fall often into 
grievous sins, because they are not sustained by 
the grace which belongs to the state in which God 
desires them to be. A woman, therefore, can 
never show her superior intellectual powers better 
than by cheerfully accepting the calling for which 
the Creator evidently intended her; that is, for 
woman, wife, and unother. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 
SYSTEM CONTINUED. 




EW questions affect so directly the wel- 
fare and interests of the people as the 
question of education ; and assuredly, 
in this country, there is none of more moment as 
regards the well-being and permanence of our 
national institutions. These, our institutions, our 
prosperity and civilization, depend for their per- 
manence and perpetuity, not so much on the cul- 
ture of the arts, sciences, literature, or philosophy, 
as on the general diffusion of the salutary and 
vivifying principles of religion. History tells us 
in its every page, that the decline and downfall 
of nations have ever been caused by irreligion 
and immorality. 

Indeed, it is not the State that has made men 
free, nor can it, on its own professed origin, keep 
(128) 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 129 

itself or them free. It has no mission to reform 
men or manners ; its boasted material civilization 
is no civilization at all. For steam, railroads, 
telegraphs, printing, and in fact all the arts and 
natural sciences, have never civilized or converted 
one man, not even a naked savage, and never 
will. They are the results of civilization, and 
even then the least part. Nor are they adequate 
to maintain or preserve the State. What is 
called material civilization is nothing else than 
polished barbarism, — a kind of monster, with the 
intelligence of a man, and the cruelty and in- 
stincts of a beast. It may flatter the vanity of 
modern nations to think they are superior to the 
ancients in scientific and industrial developments, 
but if they rely on this alone, they are greatly 
mistaken. I admit the superiority of the mod- 
erns, but not on this account. In the first place, 
many arts and products of head and hands have 
been lost, but even those that remain are the 
envy and despair of modern competitors. Be- 
sides, every age must be judged by comparison 
with its contemporaries. Yet they have fallen ; 
and antiquarian travellers search in vain for the 
ruins of the proudest and greatest cities of the 
9 



130 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

past. The nation and people — the most gallant 
and accomplished of all antiquity — who en- 
graved their names on the imperishable fields of 
Platsea and Marathon, who conquered at Salamis, 
or died at Thermopylae — that carried eloquence, 
heroism, and art to a pitch never since attained — 
the age which boasted of Pericles and Praxitelles, 
of Plato and Aristides — jjerished from excess of 
its material civilization, deprived, as it was, of 
tlie vital element of true religion. Without this 
no nation can live, nor exhibit in its actions true 
grandeur, or nobility of character. There is 
among such a cruelty, a perfidy, and a beastly 
lust, Avhich sooner or later bring on their decay 
and ruin. 

Look at ancient Rome, the once proud mis- 
tress of the world. In her palmiest days, amidst 
her thousands of marble palaces and triumphal 
arches, amidst her innumerable temples and altars, 
there was not one to Mercy. Nor was there, 
amidst all this barbaric display, a single hospital 
for the poor of any age or condition. The Ro- 
man ea2:le was carried at the head of victorious 
legions to the " Hithet' Inde,'' and far beyond the 
depths of "-ffe/ryniau ybj'e.s^^-." Conquered kings 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 131 

marched at the head of subjugated nations to 
swell her triumphs ; the wealth and strength of 
the then known world lay at her feet. 

Here w^as exhibited on a scale — the grandest 
the world ever saw or will see — the triumphs of 
^^ material civilization." Yet all this crumbled 
and fell before the rude hatchets of the long- 
haired " harharian hordes,''' coming they knew not 
from whence, and going they knew not whither, 
only able to give the single answer, that they 
were " the scourge of God.''' Where, then, was the 
power to save ? It was not in their material civ- 
ilization, nor in their impotent and terrified 
legions. What all these could not do was ac- 
complished by an unarmed man — Pope Leo the 
Great, speaking in the name of that mighty God, 
unknown alike to Attila and to Roman wisdom. 
That God still reigns, and Him it is the State 
would exclude from the Public Schools ! thereby 
denying alike the lessons of history and its 
Christian duty. These United States, or no ex- 
isting nation (relatively to the age) , has never at- 
tained the point of artistic, aesthetic, social or 
material perfection of the Greco-Roman States ; 
yet they fell, as I have just said, to slavery and 



132 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ruin, not so much from the blows of the bar- 
bari.'ins, as from the dissc^lving influence of a mMe- 
Tial civilization, resulting inevitably in public and 
private impotence and demoralization. 

Only keep up the present godless system of 
State education, and depend on it, as sure as ef- 
fect fol-lows cause, every species of villany and 
detilement will flood the land. It is certain that 
all education which is not based on religion is 
heathenish, and must prove destructive in the 
end. It will destroy the very people whom it 
was expected to save. It will consume them as 
a fire. 

Nor can it be otherwise ; for what brought on 
the " Cities of the Plain " the material fires of 
heaven? Or what were the sins and crimes of 
the Gentile nations that called forth the terrible 
chastisements predicted by the prophets ? Why, 
the self-same pride, worldlj'^-mindedness, ambition, 
sensuality, and disregard of God and His laws 
which is at this hour taught in the Public Schools. 
This, I am aware, is a grave charge, but it is 
made with all deliberation and sense of respon- 
sibility. Indeed, the ancients were in many re- 
spects more excusable than we are. They had 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 133 

but the Old Law, always incomplete and obscure, 
whilst we live under the fulfilment of the new- 
law, with all its aids and graces. Now, if God 
did not spare the "Cities of the Plain," if He de- 
stroyed the ancient nations in punishment for 
their wicked lives and disrea:;ard of Himself 
and His law, what reason have our modern 
heathens and infidels to escape God's vengeance — ■ 
they who in every respect are more guilty in 
His sight? Let the measure of the evil conse- 
quences of the Public School system become full, 
and rest assured the wrath of God will not fail 
to come down upon the American people. The 
late American war was a great punishment for the 
whole country. Thousands of men were launched 
into eternity unprepared to appear before their 
Eternal Judge. Yet this punishment is only a 
forerunner of a far more terrible one. The Lord 
is patient, and slow in punishing a whole nation, 
which He may spare for many years for the sake 
of His just. Yet for all that Ho will not fail to 
punish private families, fathers, and mothers, and 
children, if they have no regard for Him and His 
law — if they are practical infidels, and give them- 
selves up to their beastly passions. Let me 



134 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

give you some instances, taken from the little 
book "Fate of Infidelity," by a Converted Infidel. 
"You all have, undoubtedly, heard of Blind 
Palmer, a professed infidel. After he had tried 
to lecture against Christ he lost his sight, and 
died suddenly in Philadelphia, in the forty-second 
year of his age. You will also have heard of the 
so-called Orange County Infidel Society. They 
held, among other tenets, that it was risfht to in- 
dulge in lasciviousness, and that it was right to 
regulate their conduct as their propensities and 
appetites should dictate ; and as these principles 
were carried into practical operation by some 
families belonging to the association, in one in- 
stance a son held criminal intercourse with his 
mother, and publicl}'^ justified his conduct. The 
step-father, and husband to the mother who thus 
debased herself, boldly avowed that, in his opin- 
ion, it was morally right to hold such intercourse. 
The members of this impious society were visited by 
God in a remarkable manner. They all died, within 
five years, in some strange or unnatural manner. 
One of these was seized with a sudden and violent- 
illness, and in his agony exclaimed : ' My bowels are 
on fire — die I must," and his spirit passed away. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 135 

"Dr. H., another of the party, was found dead 
in his bed the next mornins;. 

"D. D., a printer, fell in a fit and died imme- 
diately, and three others were drowned within a 
few days. 

"B. A., a lawyer, came to his death by starva- 
tion, and C. C, also educated for the bar, and a 
man of superior intellectual endowments, died of 
want, hunger, and filth. 

"Another one, who had studied to be a preacher, 
suddenly disappeared, but at length his remains 
were found fast in the ice, where he evidently had 
been for a long time, as the fowls of the air, and 
the inhabitants of the deep, had consumed the 
most of his flesh. 

" Joshua Miller, notorious as a teacher of infi- 
delity, was found upon a stolen horse, and was 
shot by Col. J.WoodhuU; N. Miller, his brother, 
who was discovered one Sunday morning seated 
upon a log playing cards, was also shot. 

"Benjamin Kelly was shot off his horse by a 
boy, the son of one Clark, who had been mur- 
dered by Kelly ; his body remained upon the 
ground until his flesh had been consumed by birds. 



136 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

" I. Smith committed suicide by stabbing him- 
self, while he was in prison for crime. 

" W. Smith was shot by B. Thorpe and others, 
for robbery. 

"S. T. betrayed his own confidential friend for 
a few dollars ; his friend was hung, and he was 
afterwards shot by D. Lancaster. 

" I.V. was shot by a company of militia. I. D. , 
in a drunken fit, was frozen to death. 

"I. B., and I. Smith, and J. Vervellen, B. R., 
and one other individual, were hung for heinous 
crimes they had committed. N. B., W. T., and 
W. H., were drowned. C. C. hung himself. A. S. 
was struck with an axe, and bled to death. 

"F. S. fell from his horse and was killed. W. 
Clark drank himself to death ; he was eaten by 
the hosrs before his bones were found, which were 
recognized b}^ his clothing. J. A., sen., died in 
the woods, his rum-jug by his side; he was not 
found until a dog brought home one of his legs, 
which was identified by his stocking ; his bones 
had been picked by animals. 

"S. C. hung himself, and another destroyed 
himself by taking laudanum. D. D. was hired 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 137 

for ten dollars to shoot a man, for which offence 
he died upon the gallows. 

" The most of those who survived were either 
sent to the State Prison, or were publicly whipped 
for crimes committed against the peace and dig- 
nity of the State." 

This is a brief history of the Orange County 
"Liberals," as they called Hhemselves. To the 
iofidel and evil-doer, it presents matter worthy of 
serious reflection, while the believer will recog- 
nize ill each event the special judgment of God, 
which is too clearly indicated to be doubted by 
any honest mind. I ask, will the Lord fail to 
visit with similar judgments all those who are 
guilty of the same crimes ? Will the Lord fail to 
visit with similar judgments all those who, by 
keeping up and defending a godless system of 
education, prepare the young for infidelity, and 
all kinds of crimes and iniquities? If the Lord 
punished so severely the King Antiochus for car- 
rying away the sacred vessels from the temple of 
Jerusalem ; if He sent so many plagues upon the 
Egyptians, and drowned, at last, the King 
Pharaoh and his whole army in the Red Sea, for 
refusing to let the people of God ofier sacrifices 



138 ' PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

where and in the manner the Lord desired it, 
what will be the punishments for those who, by a 
godless system of edncation, abolish religion? If 
God slew twenty-four thousand men of the Israel- 
ites for having fallen into fornication (Numb. 
XXV.), with what punishments will He visit those 
who add, to the sin of fornication and adultery, 
even the crime of child-murder ! Numberless 
child-murders are committed daily in the land. 
Assuredly the voice of these innocent victims will 
cry to heaven for vengeance, and the Lord will not 
deafen His ear to their voice. If the American 
people will not soon put an end to the godless 
system of education, if they permit any longer 
the rising generation to be raised to infidelity, 
the wrath of the Lord, enkindled against them 
ever since the introduction of the godless system 
of education, will fall upon them. In former 
times, when the Lord threatened the people 
with His chastisements, they entered into them- 
selves, and did penance, because they had faith, 
and the Lord was appeased. But our modern 
heathens laugh at the very idea of doing penance. 
So the wrath of the Lord will surely overtake 
them when they least expect it. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE STATE. — ITS USURPATION OP THE IISTDIVIDUAL 
RIGHTS. ITS IlSrCOMPETENCY TO EDUCATE. 




T is certain and undeniable that two or- 
ders of things actually exist in this 
world, the natural order and the super- 
natural — nature and grace. These two orders 
have the same ultimate end, though, in them- 
selves, they are distinct. Nature is, and must 
be, always subordinate to grace ; the natural must 
be always subservient to the supernatural. This 
is God's immutable decree. Hence religion must 
always hold the first place in everything. A sys- 
tem of education that places the natural and the 
supernatural on the same level is absurd, and 
must be condemned ; but a system of education 
that ignores the supernatural altogether, is, if pos- 
sible, even more wicked and detestable. Yet this 
wicked, detestable, irreligious system, diabolical 
(139) 



140 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

in its origin, and subversive of all political, social, 
and religious order, is imposed by the State upon 
all Christian denominations, whether they approve 
of it or not. Now the State has no right whatever 
to force such a godless system upon its subjects. 

For the I'io-ht understanding of this most im- 
portant point, I attach great importance to a clear 
understanding of what is commonly called the 
State. 

WJiat is the 8tate? 

People in general have a vague and confused 
conception of this matter. You will hear the 
people talk of the " sovereignty of the State," 
"the life of the State," " tlie power of the State," 
"the absolute authority of the State," "the par- 
amount allegiance due to the State," etc., etc. 
Not only the Public at large, but even those who 
assume to lead and direct public opinion, are con- 
stantly blundering on this subject. 

There is nothing so fertile as an idea ; it will, 
like every other germ or seed, bring forth in time 
according to its kind. If it be a good one, it will 
bring forth good fruit ; if it be a false or bad one, 
it will spread its evil fruits over society. Be it 
one or the other, it is never barren ; sooner or 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 141 

later, the idea or maxim takes form and substance 
in an Institution; then it operates, in a material 
manner, for good or evil. 

To illustrate : a false conception of the nature 
and authority, of the legitimate functions, rights 
and duties of what is called the " State," has led, 
and will, if not corrected, ever lead to the most 
deplorable political, social, and religious disorder 
and oppression. As diverging lines in mathemat- 
ics can never approximate, but must continue to 
widen as they are extended, so a false departure 
from a political " standpoint " can never be recti- 
fied unless by a return to correct first principles. 
This is what is meant by the democratic maxim, 
" that a frequent return to first principles is neces- 
sary to secure the ends of public liberty." 

Indeed, this error, this diverging point in con- 
stitutional interpretation, has been the real cause 
— the " causa causarum " — of the late war ; and 
not the "negro," or "cotton," or the "spirit of 
domination," or " difference of race," or what not, 
might serve as the '^^ proximate cause," but the real 
cause lay far back of them. I am willing to 
admit that political events do not always proceed 
on a strictly logical order, but nevertheless there 



142 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

is a sequence, indeed an inevitable chain of cause 
and effect in the progress of public affiiirs, such as 
we see in individual conduct, but only on a broader 
scale. 

Now what is the civil power, or State; what its 
origin, its authority, its legitimate functions, its 
rights and duties ? Here I must, of necessity, be 
very brief. The State originated from the nat- 
ural desire which men experience to obtain certain 
goods, such as peace, security of life and prop- 
erty, of personal rights and privileges, etc., etc. 
These are goods which neither individuals, nor fam- 
ilies, nor private corporations can procure for them- 
selves satisfactorily. People therefore unite to 
establish a State, in order to -attain, through the 
State, what they cannot do by their own private ex- 
ertions. The State, then, is made by the people 
and for the people. In our form of government 
it is a mere corporate agency. Its duty is to see 
that justice is administered, and personal rights and 
property protected. It holds the sword of justice 
not for itself, but for others; it is the servant, and 
not the master. The people were not made for 
the State, or given to the State, but the State is 
posterior to the people ; it was, as I said before, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 143 

established by the people and for the people. lu 
them, under God, resides the sovereignty and ulti- 
mate permanent authority. The right of the State 
is to discharge the duties assis^ned it within the 
sphere of its delegated authority — that is all. 

That sphere of action of the State in this coun- 
try is clearly defined in the written Constitution. 
The State, then, must scrupulously abstain from 
violating any of the rights it was organized to 
protect. 

There never has been, and never will be, but 
two forms of government — one seeking to re- 
strain, the other to enlarge, the liberties of the 
people. To the former belong the centralized 
and despotic governments of the past and present ; 
to the latter, the limited and representative ones. 

Russia, without doubt, is the highest type of 
that despotism so common among Pagan nations. 
The Czar is the successor of the Gentile Csesar ; 
he unites in himself the civil and spiritual power ; 
the inevitable result is social oppression, denial of 
the rights of conscience, of the family, and of the 
political society. Our government has ah-eady 
made gigantic steps in the same direction. Many 
of the political minds of this country have been 



144 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

drawn within the circle of monarcldal ideas. 
They are unconsciously, as it were, adopting their 
forms of thought, and applying their forms of ex- 
pression to our government, and claiming for it 
the prerogatives and supremacy appertaining to 
the feudal institutions of Asia and Europe. Our 
simple democratic form of government seems to 
be getting ashamed of its plebeian origin, and am- 
bitious to ape the language and pretensions of its 
former masters. This decadence was made appar- 
ent not long ago, in the discussions "for the 
removal of the United States Capitol." In a two- 
hours' discussion, the word "Republic," or "Fed- 
eral Goverment," or "United States," was not 
once mentioned!! It was ^'Nation" "Empire," 
etc., etc., usque ad nauseam, from beginning to 
end. To a reflecting mind, this language has an 
ominous significance. It smacks strongly of 
monarchy. 

But some one will perhaps say, "Sir, what has 
all this dissertation to do with your subject? 
You commence by disclaiming against the Public 
School System, and here you are giving a grave- 
lecture on the nation relapsing into imperialism 
or monarchy." 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 145 

It has a great deal to do ; it is an attempt to 
trace effects to their causes. This government of 
ours, both in its Federal and State capacity, is 
growing ambitious to play the King. It is setting 
itself up as master. It is using the language of 
all tyrants: ^^ Sic volo, sic juheo,'''' etc., etc. It 
claims, after the example of Prussia or Russia, or 
some other despotism, to direct the education of the 
children of the people. It even claims them as 
belono^insr to itself. It is the s^reat feudal master. 
It takes upon itself the old duty of providing in- 
struction for the sons and daughters of its depend- 
ents. It takes upon itself the discharge of duties 
imposed on parents by Divine Law, just as if 
fathers and mothers hsid lost their natural instincts 
as well as sense of duty ; just as if the State 
had all the intelligence, virtue, and forethought of 
the public in her keeping. It dispenses parents 
from a duty from which God will never dispense 
them. It has usurped the office of teacher ; it 
will, if not checked, set itself up as preacher. It 
makes Sunday laws, temperance laws ; it places 
marriage on the footing of simple contracts, facil- 
itates divorce : it is constantly, in all these things 
and many others, repeating the "mot" ascribed to 

10 



146 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

a King of France : ^"U'etat cest moi.'' In fine, it 
makes, as it has been aptly, but not very rever- 
ently, said, God a little man, and itself and the 
State a little god, not in love and charity, indeed, 
but in power and authority. 

Here is where the danger comes from, and it is 
against this that the people must provide. The 
people must see to it that the State, or those who. 
are charged with its authority, keep within their 
proper place. The people can never be too vig- 
ilant or jealous of their constituted authority, 
never permit themselves to be the victims of mis- 
placed confidence. The State is not seldom the 
usurper — the rebel that should be watched. The 
allegiance is not to it, but from it to the people — 
its master. " Eternal vigilance is the price of 
liberty." 

The people have been greatly deceived and 
wronged by the State on the establishment of the 
Public School system. The better to understand 
this, let us see again, in a few words, what are the 
principles on which the establishment of public 
schools is based. How did men arrive at the idea 
that the State should l)e a school-master? If we 
consult historv, we shall find that this idea rests 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 147 

upon most objectionable grounds. In Europe — in 
Protestant countries — the education of youth was 
held to belong to the church. But as the Prot- 
estant prince was also the chief bishop of his 
church, he had the care of schools, as well as the 
administration of other religious matters. Accord- 
ing to this principle of the State-church, all the 
schools were State-schools. At the present day, 
Protestant princes and princesses are not looked 
upon as chief bishops, but the consequence of this 
objectionable system does still remain, and has 
gained a foothold even in this free country. 

The French Ke volution, among other things, 
diffused communistic and socialistic theories. Nay, 
communism and socialism seemed to have, for a 
moment, the fullest sway in those revolutionary 
proceedings. It is from such socialistic revolu- 
tionists that came the idea, or rather principle, 
which was made a law, that the State should edu- 
cate the children of its subjects. Accordingly the 
school-system was arranged, which Napoleon I. 
highly welcomed and retained, as he saw in it a 
welcome instrument of his despotism. In fact, 
nothing pleases State-absolutism or despotism so 
ranch as the complete control of education through 



148 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the system of State-schools. As the result of im- 
partial history, then, we see that the foundation 
of the State-school system is nothing else than the 
objectionable Protestant State-church, and espec- 
ially revolutionary socialism. 

But most absurd did the State-school system 
appear after it had been transplanted into free 
America. Here this " State system of education " 
was at first applied to the poor, and other unpro- 
vided-for " waifs of society." But not long after, 
the State claimed to have a paramount interest in 
the children of all classes ; it made no distinction, 
it knew not the rich from the poor, but opened its 
scholastic treasures alike, and it was thought to 
be all riofht. 

What an absurdity ! The State, as I have re- 
marked, must scrupulously abstain from violating 
any of those rights which it was organized to pro- 
tect. It must not paralyze or take away the 
industry of the individual, family, or private in- 
stitutions by substituting for it its own industry. 
The State should rather protect and promote the 
industry of its subjects, as well as other rights and 
liberties. Let me speak more plainly : the State, 
for instance, should protect trade, but it should 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 149 

not be itself a tradesman ; the State should eu- 
eourasre ao;riculture, but it should not be itself a 
farmer ; the State should sustahi honest handicraft, 
but it should not work at shoe-making or tailor- 
ing, and bread-baking. So, in the same manner, 
the State should promote and protect education, 
but it should not be itself a school-master, and 
give instruction. 

What a cry would be raised if the State erected 
State workshops, and thereby ruined all other 
similar trades ! Now the State does the same 
thing, as far as possible, in regard to education. 
What an absurdity ! In our free country. State 
education has no more foundation in good sense 
than the old sumptuary laws, that regulated the 
length of a boot or the dimensions of a skirt. 

If the State claims the right to educate our 
children, why does it not just as well claim the 
right to nurse, feed, clothe, doctor, and lodge 
them? Indeed these necessities are more indis- 
pensable, and must be supplied to a considerable 
extent before education can be given at all. Why 
should the State throw all these burdens on the 
parents, and assume that of instruction? It can- 
not claim to know more of irrammar than of the 



150 rUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

art of iiursinsr and cookinoj. It is even said that 
tlie tailor and barber have more to do in fasliion- 
ing the man than the school-master. 

Again, how absurd is it not for the State to 
uudertalve to teach all alike, without regard to 
their circumstances or prospects in life, the same 
business. This scholastic equality soon ends, if 
it ever had a reality. They cannot all expect to 
be Newtous, Humboldts, or La Places. They can- 
not be all, nay, not one in ten thousand, "profes- 
sors," or "editors," or what not. We cannot, if 
we would, escape the sentence imposed on our 
forefather in the garden : " Thou shalt eat thy 
bread in the sweat of thy tace." As well might 
the State claim that all the children from seven to 
seventeen years of age should sit at the same 
table, provided at public expense, and be served 
with the same food and the same number of dishes. 
If the State (in order to prepare the rising gen- 
eration to make citizens, which must be its reason, 
if any) thinks it necessary to prescribe a State 
education, it is equally important that their food, 
and even their clothing, should be of the approved 
State quality and pattern ! ! ! All know that this 
was the old Lacgedemonian plan, and how it ended 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 151 

history tells ; — in ferocity, avarice, dishonesty and 
disruption. All admit the folly and wickedness 
of forcing a people into uniformity in matter of 
religion. Now it is just as unreasonable, just as 
absurd, just as wicked to force the people into 
uniformity in the matter of education. One 
species of tyranny as well as the other disregards 
the just claims of conscience, tramples on the 
most vital rights of individuals, and usm^ps the 
most sacred right of the family. 

The State may, indeed, require that the children 
should be educated, in order that they may one 
day become worthy members of society, and fit 
subjects for the State ; but claim, and give, and 
control their education, the State cannot. There 
is in all this matter a feature not always clearly 
represented. It is this : any provision made by 
the " State " for education, must refer to the ]iOor 
and otherwise unprovided, and be justified on the 
^rounds of the State standins^ to these classes in 
loco parentis; beyond this, though the State, as 
to "charitable uses," may be defined j?arens patria, 
yet, as to the people at large, it has nothing to do 
ivith their education whatever. If this simple 



152 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

though undeniable fact were proporl^^ unclerstood, 
it would save a world of trouble and confusion. 

I am speaking of a '' Christian State " and the 
State in America is Christian. The very graves, 
if necessary, Avould open and give up their dead 
to bear testimony to its Christian origin. Its civ- 
ilization is Christian, and is the product of the 
principles of the " N'ew Law " as taught and pro- 
mulgated by the Church. The distinguishing 
feature of this civilization is, that it has asserted 
the dignity of freedom of the individual man, 
while the ancient, or Gentile, civilization, sunk the 
individual man in the composite society called 
the State. In that case it was but reasonable that 
the State should, as owner, take upon itself the 
burden of providing, not only for his government, 
but also for the education of his offspring. These, 
too, belonged to it, on the maxim of Roman or 
Pagan law, that partus sequitur ventrem, or the 
offspring follows the parent. This is the origin 
of the Pa<ran doctrine, "the children of the State" 
— a miserable relic of barbarism. It is important 
to keep this fact in mind, when we deny the su- 
premacy of tlte State in the matter of education. 

Our children, then, are not the children of the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 153 

State. The State has no children, and never had, 
nor will. The State does not own them, nor 
their fathers nor mothers, nor anybody else in this 
country, thank God ! We have not got that far 
yet on the road to civil slavery, and I hope we 
never shall. We are not Pagans, nor Mahometans, 
nor Russians. We have not sold out, and don't 
intend to ! We are free, for with a great price 
our forefathers have bought this freedom ; and 
better still, we are made, through the mercy of 
our Divine Author, Christians, and heirs to a 
heavenly kingdom. Our children, too, are free; 
they belong by the order of nature to their pa- 
rents, and by the order of grace to our Lord Jesus 
Christ. They are children of God and heirs to 
His heavenly kingdom. It is not on the State, 
but on parents, that God imposed the duty to edu- 
cate their children, a duty from which no State 
can dispense, nor can fathers and mothers relieve 
themselves of this duty by the vicarious assumption 
of the State. They have to give a severe account 
of their children on the Day of Judgment, and they 
cannot allow any power to disturb them in insist- 
ing upon their rights and making free use of them. 
The State has no more authority or control right- 



154 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

fully over our childreu, than over a man's wife. 
The right to educate our children is a right of 
conscience, and a right of the family. Now these 
rights do not belong to the temporal order at all ; 
and outside of this the State has no claim, no 
right, no authority. When the State has children, 
it will be time enough to teach them. How long 
will it take our enlightened age to learn this sim- 
ple but important truth? 

Nothing shows better the absurdity of the State 
in claimiui; the risrht of education, than its incom- 
potency for the task. The State is forbidden any 
interference with religion. 

I have shown that the whole system is infidel 
in princi]_>le. The State saj^s Ave want no religion 
taught in the Public Schools, because, as we cannot 
teach you religion without inculcating some form 
or other professed by some sect or other, and as 
we do not wish to give offence, we will teach you 
none. Let the child believe anything or nothing, 
so as it is not some form of "sectarianism." I 
worship in the " Pantheon ; " all are alike to me, of 
course. In all this the State is perfectly consis- 
tent, and cannot do otherwise. It has undertaken 
a part it is not crympetent to perform. The State, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 155 

as State, professes no form of belief. Its gods, 
its worships, its altars, its victims, its rewards, 
its punishments, its heaven, its hell — are here. 
It teaches no religion, because it don't profess 
any. It was not born, it will not die, it has no 
soul, it was not created, it will not be judged in 
the world to come, like men. 

But let me not be misunderstood as concluding 
that states, nations, or kingdoms are not moral 
persons, and are not responsible for their acts and 
conduct to Almighty God. They have no right 
to do wronof more than an individual. " States " 
have their lives, their mission, their destiny ; 
they have their sphere here below. They repre- 
sent the temporal, or the things which belong to 
Caesar. 

The State, then, is a moral person, and a for- 
tiori, a religious person, for there can he no mor- 
ality without religion. But though religion, in a 
general sense, be recognized by the State, it has 
no authority to control or direct it. It must re- 
spect the conscience of an individual. This is 
his birthri2:ht, and cannot be voted away, whether 
to snpport Public Schools or Public Churches. 

If there be amongst us any number, great or 



156 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

small, who deny the coramoii faith, it is the duty 
of the State to tolerate thera. A greater power 
— God — does this. But the State itself cannot 
profess ov plajj infidel, or, under pretence of avoid- 
ing sectarian partiality, strike at the root of all 
Christianity. I admit the State is of the " temporal 
order," and cannot discriminate between the vari- 
ous modes of belief; but not for that can it place 
itself outside of them. It is distinguishable , but 
not separable, from the spiritual order. It is sim- 
ply a means to a greater end. It is a mischievous 
error to say that the State has nothing to do with 
religion, and may act outside of its obligations. 
If by this it is meant that the State cannot estab- 
lish or maintain any special form of religion, or 
interfere with its profession, or even denial by 
others, I admit the proposition ; but if, on the 
other hand, it is meant that it regards Christianity 
and infidelity, God or no God, truth and error, 
either as equal or unimportant, then I utterly deny 
and condemn it. To bear with and tolerate error 
is its duty ; to foster or provide for its support or 
propagation, or place it on the same footing with 
revealed truth, is another and very different 
thinof. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 157 

The constitutions of tlie State guarantee to 
every citizen tlie riglit to worship God according 
to the dictates of his own conscience ; but this is 
not guaranteeing to every one the liberty of not 
worshipping God at all, to deny His existence, 
His revelation, or to worship a false god. The 
freedom e^uaranteed is the freedom of religion, not 
the freedom of infidelity. The American Consti- 
tution grants to the infidel the right of protection 
in his civil and political equality, but it grants him 
no right to protection and support in his infidel itj^ ; 
for infidelity is not a religion, but the denial of all 
religion. The American State is Christian, and 
nnder the Christian law, and is based upon Chris- 
tian principles. Jt is bound to protect and enforce 
Christian morals and its laws, whether assailed by 
Mormonism, Spiritism, Freelovism, Pantheism, or 
Atheism. But the State does the contrary. For, 
I ask, is not the State indirectly prohibiting the 
profession of Christianity by establishing a system 
of education which prohibits all religious instruc- 
tion? The State forbids the teacher to speak a 
word on the subject of religion. 

The State says that "it is an admitted axiom that 
our form of government, more than all others, 



158 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

depends on the virtue and intelligence of the people. 
The State proposes to furnish this virtue and intel- 
ligence through the Public /Schools." That is, the 
safety of the State depends on the virtue and in- 
telligence of the people, and the latter is derived 
from the virtue and intelligence of the "State." 
But where does the virtue and intellisfence of the 
State come from ? The only answer on this the- 
ory is, from the people. So the " State " enlightens 
and purifies the people, and the people enlighten 
and purify the " State." The people support the 
State, the State supports the Public Schools, and 
they support the State. If this is not what logi- 
cians call a "vicious circle," it looks very much 
like it. It puts me in mind of the Brahmin's 
theory of the support of the earth. Tlie Hindoo 
says, " The world rests on the back of an elephant 
— the elephant rests on the back of a turtle." 
But what does the turtle rest on ? So it is with 
our ^^ Public School brahmins." They will tell 
you, with all the coohiess of Hindoo hypocrisy 
and pretension, that the " State depends on the 
schools — the schools on the State or people," but 
they do not say what the turtle stands on. This 
is the dilemma that all who rest society on the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 159 

State, or on aii atheistical basis, get into. Tliey 
would cut the world loose from its assigned order 
of dependence on Divine Law, and "set it a-going 
on its own hook." But the trouble is, they have 
no support for this turtle ; they have an earth 
without axis. The Public School savaus would 
have a self-supporting, a self-adjusting, and a self- 
created State, balanced on nothing, resting on 
nothing, responsible to nothing, and believing in 
nothing but in its own perfection and immortality. 
They pretend, " through godless schools," to give 
virtue without morality, morality without relig- 
ion, and religion without God; thereby sinking 
below the level of the poor Indian, whose untu- 
tored mind sees God in the clouds, and hears Him 
in the wind. 

The nameless abominations of the Communists, 
Fourrierists, and other such vile and degraded fra- 
ternities ; the cold-blooded murders and frightful 
suicides that fill so many domestic hearths with 
grief and shame ; the scarcely-concealed corrup- 
tion of public and professional men ; the adroit 
peculation and wilful embezzlement of the public 
money ; those monopolizing speculations and vol- 
untary insolvencies so ruinous to the community 



160 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

at large ; and, above all, those shocking atrocities 
so common in our country of unbeliefs — the legal 
dissolution of the matrimonial tic, and the wanton 
tampering with life in its very bud ; all these are 
humiliating facts sufficient to convince any impar- 
tial mind that there can be no social virtue, no 
morality, no true and lasting greatness, Avithout 
religion. 

"Religion," says -Lord Derby, "is not a thing 
apart from education, but is interwoven with its 
whole system ; it is a principle which controls and 
regulates the whole mind and happiness of the 
people." And, "Popular education," says Gulzot, 
"to be truly good and socially useful, must be 
fundamentally religious." 

The essential element of education — its pith 
and marrow, so to speak — is the religious element. 
By excluding it from the school-room the State 
has committed a crying injustice to the rising gen- 
eration, and one of the worst — if not the very 
worst — of crimes against society. It is not one 
portion of the "triple man," but the whole — the 
physical, intellectual, and moral being — the body, 
the mind, the head, as stated in a previous chap- 
ter — that must be cultivated and "brought up." 



PUBLIC SCPIOOL EDUCATION. 161 

Neglect any one part of man's nature, and you at 
once disturb the equilibrium of the whole, and 
produce disorder ; educate the body at the expense 
of the mind and soul, and you will have only ani- 
mated clay ; educate the intelligence at the ex- 
pense of the moral and religious feelings, and you 
but fearfully increase a man's power to effect evil. 
You store the arsenal of his mind with weapons to 
sap alike the altar and the throne, to carry on a 
Avar of extermination against every holy principle , 
against the welfare and the very existence of so- 
ciety. 

Science, without religion, is more destructive 
than the sword in the hands of unprincipled men ; 
it will prove more of a demon than a god. It is 
these upholders of the present Public School sys- 
tem that arrest the progress of true happiness in 
our country, and prepare terrible catastrophes, 
which may deluge the land with blood. 

Who were the leaders in the work of destruction 
and wholesale butchery in the Reign of Terror? 
The nurslings of lyceums in which the chaotic 
principles of the " philosophers " were proclaimed 
as oracles of truth. 

Who are those turbulent revolutionists who now 
11 



162 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

long to erect the guillotine by the Tuilleries ? And 
who are those secret conspirators and their myr- 
midon partisans who have sworn to unify Italy or 
lay it in ruins? Men who were taught to scout 
the idea of a God and rail at religion, to consider 
Christianity as a thing of the past ; men who revel 
in wild chimeras by night, and seek to realize 
their mad dreams by day. 

Let us, then, dear American fellow-citizens, 
rest assured that intellectual discipline, without 
the cooperation of any religious element, will not, 
and cannot, produce the greatness of a nation, nor 
can it maintain its life and splendor and prevent 
its decay; let us, on the contrary, be persuaded 
that the only safety for a commonwealth, the only 
source of greatness and prosperity for a nation, as 
well as of tranquillity and happiness for the indi- 
vidual, is the true religion of Jesus Christ ; it is 
this religion alone that is the safeguard of moral- 
ity, and morality is the best security of law, as 
well as the surest pledge of freedom. 



CHAPTEE X. 




THE STATE A ROBBER. — VIOLATION OF OUR CON- 
STITUTION AND COMMON LAW. 

E have seen, so far, that the irreligious, 
godless system of the Public Schools 
tends directly to turn the youth of both 
sexes into the worst kind of infidels ; to make 
them disregard good principles, and hold iniquity 
in veneration ; to do away, not only with all re- 
vealed religion, but even with the law of nature ; 
to make them practise. fraud, theft, and robbery 
almost as a common trade ; to make them regard- 
less of their parents and of all divinely consti- 
tuted authority ; we have seen that this godless 
system of education is the most powerful means 
to create confusion, not only in religion, but also 
in government and in the family circle ; to in- 
crease the number of apostates, and make of these 
apostates members of such secret societies as aim 
(163) 



164 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

at the overthrow of governments and all good or- 
der, and Christian religion itself. 

Trnly, this godless system of edncation, if 
carried out to its logical consequences, will dis- 
rupt society, destroy the right of the Christian 
family entirely, 1)ring back on the world the bar- 
barism, tyranny and brutality of Pagan antiquity, 
and make slaves and victims of its children and 
their posterity forever ! 

Who does not feel most indignant at the State 
for having introduced such a godless S3^stem of 
education? And for the support of this system 
of education — of this lyroUfic mother of cJiildren 
of anti-Christ — we are enormously tithed and 
taxed ! Horrible ! 

I have shown that the State in America is 
Christian ; that it cannot profess or play infidel. 
What right, then, has a Christian State to compel 
Christians to support infidel schools? Is not this 
compulsory support most violative of constitu- 
tional and reli<2;ious rights? Accordinsf to the Con- 
stitution of the State, " no human authority can 
control or interfere with the rights of conscience." 
Now, the direction and control of the education 
of our children is clearly not only a duty, but a 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 1G5 

"right of conscience." This right, of course, be- 
longs to all denominations, whether few or many. 
By what authority, then, does the State impose 
an established system of education at our expense 
against this constitutionally guaranteed right of 
conscience? I would like to know wherein this 
differs from an established church, such as has 
been lately removed, after having been imposed 
for centuries by State supremacy on the Irish 
people, without their consent. 

It is, in fact, much worse; for though the Epis- 
copal Church was not in accordance with the re- 
ligious belief of a majority, yet it was, neverthe- 
less, a Christian Church of a sect of high orthodox 
pretensions. But these ^'^ Public Schools," for 
whose support we and all other Christian denom- 
inations are taxed, are, by their own confession, 
utterly irreligious. The early Christians refused 
to burn even a little gum-rosin (incense) before 
the Pagan idols, and preferred rather to go to the 
lions ; but we Christians, in this late day, and in 
what is boastinglv called "Free America," are 
forced to pay taxes to support what is worse than 
heathen idols — schools frbm which the name of 
God is excluded, and, to our shame, we submit. 



166 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Referriiio; to the wronof done to Catholics who 
cannot, in conscience, send theii- children to these 
schools, Judge Taft, of Ohio, said not long ago : 

"This is too large a circumstance to be covered 
by the Latin phrase, 'De minimis non curat lex.' 
These Catholics (paying their proportion of the 
taxes) are constrained, every year, on conscien- 
tious grounds, to yield to others their right to 
one-third of the school-money, a sum averaging, 
at the present time, about $200,000 every year. 
That is to say, these people are punished every 
year, for believing as they do, to the extent of 
$200,000 ; and to that extent those of us who 
send our children to these excellent common 
schools become beneficiaries of the Catholic money. 
What a shame for Protestants to have their chil- 
dren educated for money robbed from Catholics ! 
Mercantile life is supposed to cultivate, in some, 
a relish for hard bargains. But if it were a 
business matter, and not a matter of religious 
concern, could business men be found willing to 
exact such a pecuniary advantage as this? I 
think it would shock the secular conscience ! " 

The State, in creating free schools, is like the 
Turkish Bashaw's mode of making pork cheap. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 167 

He first compelled the Jews to buy it at a rate 
fixed by himself; but the Jews had no use for it, 
so it was left for every one to pick up at will. 
Indeed, what is a school worth when a man will 
pay a premium to be exempt from sending his 
children to it? The State, boasting of its splen- 
did Public Schools, is also like that poor fellow 
who wore a gold watch and boasted of it. "Where 
did you get it?" he was asked. "I got it as a 
present," he answered. Then he related how 
one day he met with a rich man : " I knocked 
him down," he said, " put my foot on his throat, 
and said: 'Give me your watch, or I kill you.' 
So he gave it to me." "Pay your taxes for the 
erection and support of our Public Schools," says 
the lord State to the poor and to the rich, " or I sell 
your property." What a shame ! The Catholics 
ask no favor, but they insist on their rights. In 
this country, whose discoverer was a Catholic — in 
this country, where the principle of religious tol- 
eration was first established by a Catholic noble- 
man, the famous and chivalric Calvert, Earl of 
Baltimore — in this country, whose people are 
largely indebted for their freedom to the armed 
cooperation and generous aid of Catholic France 



168 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION . 

— in this country, whose constitution-il freecloin 
has been struck down by the malevolent Puritan- 
ism wJiicJi in one breath deelares that Catholics 
are opposed to education, and in the next insists 
that they shall be deprived of the m'i%ns necessary 
for its miintenance — in this country, I say, we 
Catholics are entitled to equal rights, and to a 
fair share, to a just apportionment of the annual 
amount raised by taxation for the support of 
our charitable and educational institutions. We 
ask only what is fair, what is just, what is right; 
and we base our demand upon principle, and not 
upon the ground of favors granted or received. 

If the State taxes us, as a religious and Chris- 
tian people, for the education of our children, it 
must give us a Christian education. If it cannot, 
or will not do that, it must cease to tax us, and 
leave the education of our children to ourselves. 
If the Christian gives to Ciesar what belongs to 
Csesar, he has a right to demand of Csesar that he 
allow him to give to God what belongs to God. 

Again, the Constitution says, "That no person 
shall be compelled to erect, support, or attend 
any place of public worship, nor support any 
minister of the gospel, or teacher of religion," 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 169 

etc. ; and it says, " That no private property ought 
to be taken or applied to public use without just 
compensation." Now let us apply these consti- 
tutional principles to State-schools, and see if our 
compulsory support of them is not violative of 
our constitution as well as common law. Why 
is it " that no person shall be compelled to 
erect, support, or attend any place of public wor- 
ship, nor support any minister of religion"? 
Simply because he " don't want to " ; and he don't 
want to, "because it is against his conscience "; 
and " no human authority," says the Constitution, 
" can control or interfere with the rights of con- 
science " ; that is all the reason, and no other. The 
State believes that all places of worship, and min- 
isters of the gospel, are good ; but, knowing that 
there is a difference of opinion among the people 
on that subject, wisely leaves such matters to 
their choice, and will not take private property 
for public use without compensation. Why, 
then, is private property taken for Public Schools 
without compensation? We cannot use them in 
conscience, and we have seen there is no lawful 
power or authority to " control or interfere with 
conscience." I ask, then, if I am not right in 



170 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

stating that our compulsory support of an odious 
and infidel system of Public Schools, against our 
conscience and against our consent, is not far 
worse than the support of any form of church 
establishment ? 

Moreover, according to the Constitution, "No 
preference can ever be given bylaw to any church, 
sect, or mode of worship." This section is often 
quoted as the authority and reason for excluding 
religious teachings from the Public Schools ; but, 
strange enough, it is flagrantly violated by the 
present system, giving a preference by law to the 
unbelievers, and thereby discriminating against the 
believers of all sects and denominations. For, 
after all, there can l)e but two churches, or, if you 
please, sects, in the eye of the State — the be- 
lievers and unbelievers. To the former belong 
the various Christian denominations, and to the 
latter those who deny and protest against all re- 
lio:ious faith and belief. Those certainlv are the 
last, and for that reason, if for no other, are the best 
or worst (as people may choose to view them) sect. 
It is, then, this last product, this " caput mortumn " 
of all sects and believers of every shade and kind, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 171 

that is favored by the no-belief system of edu- 
cation. 

" Though the State may not give any preference 
to any church or sect," it is not, on that account, 
authorized to ignore and reject all ; but, on the 
contrary, is obliged in justice to assist all or none, 
as, by this course alone, it avoids giving prefer- 
ence to any. This is what the law contemplates, 
and the only course that comports with reason and 
justice. If it suits the last sect — the unbelievers or 
no-believers — to exclude morals or religion from 
schools, all right ; let them keep on as at present. 
But if it suits the various other churches or sects 
to modify the system to suit their conscientious 
views and beliefs, to apply their own proportion 
of the school tax for that purpose, it is their un- 
deniable and lawful right. 

There is one view in which the public will agree 
in regard to the Public Schools : it is that they 
cost too much money. For the management of 
the godless Public Schools there is a costly array 
of "Commissioners," and "Inspectors," and " Trus- 
tees," and " Superiutendents," and "Secretaries of 
Boards," and " Central Officers," all in league with 
"Contractors," to make "a good thing " — so-called 



172 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

— out of the plan. We have, now, contractors for 
buildings and repairs, contractors for furniture, 
contractors for books, contractors for furnaces, 
contractors for fuel, contractors even for pianos, 
and all making money out of it. The " Boards " 
that give the contracts do not make any money 
by way of commissions, do they? Ah ! you know 
full well that hundreds of thousands of dollars are 
annually spent or squandered in running these 
Public Schools, and which are recommended, in a 
particular manner, for their economy ! 

But aside, for a moment, from these Public 
Schools, so numerous, so costly, so grand and im- 
posing in their exterior, managed by a little army 
of high-paid professors, teachers, superintendents 
and assistants, costing the people of every city 
and State hundreds of thousands of dollars annu- 
ally, there is another army, yea, a volunteer 
army, not commissioned or paid by the State, but 
by a greater power — Cxod — who, for His love, and 
that uncomparable reward which only God be- 
stows, devote themselves to teaching, instructing, 
training and educating the poor, the needy, the 
orphan, the houseless, the homeless, the forlorn, 
the despised, as well as the more favored of the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOjST. 173 

earth. These make no grandiloquent printed re- 
ports in costl}'' binding ; they liave no official ste- 
nographers or reporters to noise their proceedings 
in " morning papers " ; they have no " Polytechnic 
Halls," fitted up with pretentious libraries, and 
all the surroundings of upholstery, and heating 
and cooling apparatus ; but winter and summer, 
early and late, they keep the even tenor of their 
way with an " eye single " to their humble and la- 
borious duties. 

In nearly all the cities of America, in those 
busy and worldly centres of traffic and trade, of 
luxury and wealth, with their average of good and 
evil, virtue and crime, this "^^ volunteer army'''' dis- 
tributes itself noiselessly, quietly, and as it were 
obscurely, not heralded nor preceded by the em- 
blems of pomp or worldly power, but nevertheless 
making its conquests and asserting its quiet in- 
fluence in lanes and alleys, gathering up the little 
children, taking them to its camps, and instructing 
and educating them in the service of God and 
society. 

You may have seen, in some of those cities, 
that long line of little boys or girls, two by two, 
extending to the length of a block or more ; you 



174 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

may have observed how regularly they are as- 
sorted, the tallest iu first, and ranging down to 
the little ones, Avhose busy feet are trying to keep 
up with the column. You may also have noted 
the order and silence (so unusual among children), 
and your attention was arrested, and perhaps you 
know not how all this order in this beautiful pan- 
orama was brought about. Well, with these boys 
you may have observed two men, one at the head, 
the other at the foot of this long line. If you saw 
this for the first time you may have wondered, 
and I suppose been even amused, at the figure and 
costume of those men; — the broad-brimmed hat, 
the long, strange-fashioned robe, the white collar, 
the collected air and mien, all bespeak the Chris- 
tian Brother. These men, nevertheless, are "pro- 
foundly learned in all the sciences of the schools." 
They have abandoned home, family, friends, and 
have devoted themselves, merely for a scant sup- 
port, to the education of the young. 

If, on the other hand, the long line are girls, 
you may have observed two ladies ; one at the 
head, the other at the foot. You will at a glance 
conclude they are not of the world. Their cos- 
tume is of the homeliest cut and quality, but scru- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 175 

pulously clean ; there is a something about their 
very presence that impresses you with reverence 
and respect, and you must be a very hardened 
sinner indeed if you did not feel the better of 
having even their shadow fall upon you. These 
silent, collected, but impressive women are ^^JVuns " 
of one order or another. They, too, have left all 
to serve God in the persons of these little chil- 
dren. They have made sacrifices greater than the 
world can appreciate or understand, and which 
only the Divine Master can reward. Their whole 
life is a silent but an eloquent sermon, their whole 
conduct the gospel in action. You will remem- 
ber they are women like others of their sex, and 
mayhap have been flattered and petted, and once 
filled with the natural vanity and expectations of 
their sex; but all these they have put behind 
them, and henceforth and forever their walk, 
and life, and conversation is with God, and in the 
service of His little ones. Now it Avill be easily 
seen that the personal influence of such men and 
women over the life and manners of children, 
must be immensly beneficial. It is granted that 
the influence of father and mother is potential for 
good or evil. So it is with teachers. Children 



176 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

are shrewd observers, and are apt to take some one 
as a prototype and exemplar. This one they copy 
as near as maybe. These " Christian Brothers," 
and "Nuns, or Sisters," are good models; they 
teach the children to pray in the best of all ways — 
by praying themselves first ; they try to impress 
on these tender souls sentiments of love, obedi- 
ence, and respect to their fathers and mothers, and, 
above all, their duties to our dear Lord. They 
accompany them to His altar on Sundays and holy 
days, beginning and ending all their daily lessons 
with a little prayer or devotion. For the rest, 
they give them, in their schools, a plain, practical 
education. 

Every day (we are told) there are instances of 
men slipping from the high rounds to the lowest 
one in the ladder of wealth. Business men find 
themselves engulphed in the sea of financial em- 
barrassment, from which they emerge with nothing 
but their personal resources to depend upon for a 
living. Clerks, salesmen, and others find them- 
selves thrown out of employment, with no pros- 
pect of speedily obtaining places Avhich they are 
competent to fill, and with no other means of 
gaining a livelihood. How many men are there 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 177 

in every city to-day, some of whom have families 
dependent on them for support, who bewail the 
mistake they made in not learning useful trades 
in their younger days ? There are hundreds of 
them. There are men in every city who have 
seen better daj^s, men of education and business 
ability, who envy the mechanic, who has a sure 
support for himself and family in his handicraft. 
Parents make a great mistake when they impose 
upon the brain of their boy the task of support- 
ing him, without preparing his hands for emer- 
gencies. 

Uo matter how favorable a boy's circumstances 
may be, he should enter the battle of life as 
every prudent general enters the battle of armies : 
with a reliable reserve to fall back upon in case 
of disaster. Every man is liable to be reduced 
to the lowest pecuniary point at some stage of 
his life, and it is hardly necessary to refer to the 
large proportion of men who reach that point. 
No man is poor who is the master of a trade. 
It is a kind of capital that defies the storm of 
financial reverse, and that clings to a man when 
all else has been swept away. It consoles him, in 
the hour of adversity, with the assurance that, 

12 



178 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

let whatever may befall him, he need have no 
fear for the support of himself and his family. 

Unfortunately a silly notion — the offspring of 
a sham aristocracy — has, of late years, led many 
parents to regard a trade as something disreput- 
able, with which their children should not be 
tainted. Labor disreputable! What would the 
world be without it? It is the very power that 
moves the world. A Power higher than the 
throne of the aristocracy has ennobled labor, 
and he who would disparage it must set himself 
above the Divine principle, " In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread ! " A trade is a " friend 
in need" ; it is independence and wealth — a rich 
legacy Avhich the poorest father may give to his 
son, and which the richest should regard as more 
valuable than gold. 

Now what kind of education is necessary for a 
tradesman to carry on business successfully? 
Only a plain, practical education ; that is to say, 
that kind and amount of knowledge of daily or- 
dinary use and appreciation. It is reading, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, English grammar, and geography, 
and possibly a knowledge of the German lan- 
guage, sufficient to speak it. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 179 

If we Took around we will see that all the im- 
portant and every-day duties of life are carried oa 
by the use of industry, common sense, reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. 

And it might almost be said that the failures 
are to be ascribed, in part, if not to over-educa- 
tion, at least to the common misdirection of ac- 
quirements, accompanied with the vague am- 
bition and desires which they invariably excite, 
but rarely serve to satisfy. Why, I could find, 
for instance, in the history, management, and 
success of every newspaper editor, a living proof 
of my proposition. Not that I leave it to be 
inferred that there is not, in these newspapers, 
the evidences of every kind of acquirements 
and ability ; but that the founders within my 
knowledge, and those who have made it the 
jpower and success that it is, have worked with 
these ordinary instruments. But why give one 
instance when there are so many on every side — 
so much so that the success of what is called the 
learned class is so rare, that it must be put among 
the exceptions. 

As to those who are able, and desire further in- 



180 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

formation, they can have it to any extent at the 
colleges, convents, academies and higher schools. 

Many of onr "dissenting brethren," of the 
various denominations, are equally diligent, ac- 
cording to the measure of grace and light given 
them, to bring their children up in Christian 
morals and education. They have their own 
schools, and support them, or they send their 
children to Catholic institutions, and will not 
have them tempted or corrupted by the evil in- 
fluences, moral, social, and intellectual, that 
emanate and surround those '^ 7vhited sepulchres" — 
the godless schools — as the miasm emanates and 
surrounds the pestilent marsh. In all these 
schools the children are carefully trained in 
Christian practices, prayers, and religious duties, 
as well as taught a good, plain, practical course 
of studies. In fact, they are truly educated; 
while in the Public Schools they are simply in- 
structed, as you might irrational animals, accord- 
ino; to their instinct. The Jews also teach and 
bring up their children in the religion of their 
fathers, at their own expense ; so that more than 
one-half are, fortunately for themselves, and 
fortunately for society, the good order and well- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 181 

being of the State, educated outside of immoral 
and dangerous pest-houses. It is on this element 
of our population that the future of the State de- 
pends ; for if we are to have a sound public 
conscience and a controlling conservative in- 
fluence in public or private affairs, we must, 
under God and His Church, obtain it from a true 
Christian education. 

At these parish schools, supported by voluntary 
aid, the expenses of pupils per yesiv is under 
seven dollars ; at the Public Schools, it is, I am 
informed, about thirty-two dollars ; so that it 
costs about four times as much to give the poor, 
miserable, shallow, infidel instruction in the 
Public Schools, as it does to give a good Chris- 
tian education in the denominational ones ; or, in 
plainer language, to educate 20,000 children in 
denominational schools saves to tax-payers not 
less than the srnall sum! of 1500,000. 

"If thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off and 
cast it from thee ; for it is expedient for thee that 
one of thy members should perish, rather than thy 
whole body be cast into hell." — (Matt. v. 30.) 
By the present Public School system, the State 
scandalizes the family, because it usurps the rights 



182 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

and duties that belong alone to parents ; it scan- 
dalizes the tax-payer, because it takes money from 
him which it has no right to take ; it scandalizes 
society, because, instead of teaching virtue, it 
teaches vice ; it scandalizes the young men and 
the young women, because, instead of inspiring 
them with love for Christianity and their religious 
duties, it inspires them rather with contempt for 
religion, and turns them into actual unbelievers, 
and thus destroys the very life of society and the 
basis of every government ; it scandalizes all na- 
tions, because there is not, and there has never been, 
any nation inculcating education without religion. 
By its present system of education, the State 
has weakened, and will finally break up and de- 
stroy, the Christian fiimily. The social unit is the 
family, not the individual ; and the greatest dan- 
ger to American society is, that we are rapidly 
becoming a nation of isolated individuals, without 
family ties or affections. The family has already 
been much weakened, and is fast disappearing. 
We have broken away from the old homestead, 
have lost the restraining and purifying associations 
that gathered round it, and live away from home 
in hotels and boarding-houses. A large and in- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 183 

fluential class of women not only neglect, but dis- 
dain, the retired and simple domestic virtues, and 
scorn to be tied down to the modest but essential 
duties — the drudgery, they call it — of wives and 
inothers. We are daily losing the faith, the vir- 
tues, the habits, and the manners, without which 
the family cannot be sustained. This, coupled 
with the separate pecuniary interests of husband 
and wife secured, make the family, to a fearful 
extents the mere shadow of what it was and of 
what it should be. What remains of the family 
is only held together by the graces and virtue of 
women. But even this last hope is fast breaking 
down, by the great facility of obtaining a divorce 
a vinculo matrimonii — a facility by which the laws 
of most of the States of the Union grant to lust 
the widest margin of license, and legalize concu- 
binage and adultery. Now when the family goes, 
the nation goes too, or ceases to be worth pre- 
serving. God made the family the type and basis 
of society ; " male and female made he them." 

By its present system of education, the State 
makes war on God and His Christ, and says, with 
Lucifer, " Non servio " ; and this is the daring 
rebel against God and His law, that would claim 



184 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the innocent children of the Christian family as 
its own ; teach theni its false maxims, promising 
them, as Satan, its master, did the Saviour, riches, 
and honors, and power, if they will but fall down 
and worship it. How incomprehensibly strange 
it is, that good men and women who profess 
Christianity, and acknowledge the obligations of 
its commandments, should give ear to this 
tempter, instead of saying, "Get behind me, 
Satan," and, " Thou art a liar and a cheat from the 
beginning." The State, in this subject of educa- 
tion, represents the world ; and religion, as well 
as experience, teaches us its folly, its wickedness, 
its treachery and its ambition. "The State 
promises bread and gives a stone." It promises 
wealth, and honor, and gives taxes, slavery, and 
degradation. It is blind, and it attempts to lead ; 
it is ignorant, and it offers to teach and direct the 
young. It will not receive the law, and it claims 
the right to give it. It arrogates the " higher 
law" and "would be as God." There is the 
danger ; and it is against this the fight must be 
made, if we Avould not surrender our civil and 
religious freedom, our temporal and eternal hap- 
piness. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 185 

Surely it is time for all good Christians of 
America to cry out to our rulers, "And now, O 
ye rulers, understand ; receive instruction, you 
that judge the earth." — (Ps. ii. x.) Do not force 
any longer upon a Christian nation an educational 
system which produces such results ; do not train 
any longer our children Avithout religion — to in- 
fidelity, and consequently to revolution. Do not 
teach the youth of America any longer to reject 
God and His religion ; they will not be long faithful 
to you if you make them unfaithful to the faith of 
their fathers. You, and all the classes in society 
Avho delight in seeing the influence of relisfion 
weakened or destroyed, never seem to realize, until 
it is too late, that you are sure to be the especial 
victims of your own success. The man who 
scorns to love God and His law, how shall he con- 
tinue to love his neighbor? The man who has 
said " there is no God," is he not on the point of 
also saying "lust is lawful," "property is rob- 
bery"? If you raise instruments to deny God 
and to do away with all religious principles, God 
will use these very instruraents to do away with 
you also. 

Youv Pagan system of education will ultimately 



186 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

overturn all order in the land. Among ancient 
Pagan nations, where the poor were comparatively 
ignorant — where they did not know their rights — 
it was easy to hold them in bondage ; but now 
thinofs have chans^ed. Discontent in the lower 
order of society can no longer be smothered. 
Education has become general ; and, unfortunately, 
the very element, without which education is often 
a curse, is omitted. Religious education has 
been separated from secular instruction. With- 
out religion, the poor are unable to control their 
passions, or to bear their hard lot. They see 
wealth around them, and, unless taught by 
religion, they see no reason why that wealth 
should not be divided amongst them. Why 
should they starve, Avhile their neighbors roll in 
splendor and luxury? If the poor were ignorant, 
they would not, perhaps, notice all the sad priva- 
tions of their state ; they would not, perhaps, 
feel them so keenly. But they are partially edu- 
cated, and " a little learning is a dangerous 
thing." 

They know their power, and, not having the 
soothing influence of religion to restrain them, 
they use their power. They have done so in 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 187 

France and elsewhere, and if they do not always 
succeed in producing revolution, and anarchy, it is 
only the bayonet that prevents them. Such is 
the abyss that yawns beneath the feet of our 
country, and into which the advocates of educa- 
tion without religion — perhaps some of them un- 
consciously — seek to precipitate us, by continuing 
to force upon this Christian nation an anti-Christ- 
ian, an an ti- American system of education. 

Surely the grievance is not simply an affair of 
taxes, or so much money uajustly levied and col- 
lected. This we might bear, as we have to do in 
other cases of injustice, for righteousness' sake. 
But we have a duty to God, ourselves, and our 
children. We recognize the office and obligations 
of the State as temporal ruler ^ but we do not ac- 
knowledge in it an absolute and unconditional au- 
thority. We do not admit the doctrine oi passive 
obedience. We will not and cannot surrender the 
education of our children to its dictation and con- 
trol, for that is a trust placed in our hands by a 
higher power, and for which we will have to 
answer, at the last day, on our salvation. I ask 
— am I right in all that I have said upon the 
State and its godless svstem of education? If I 



188 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

am, then I think I have a right to ask for a ver- 
dict of "Guilty." If there are still some who 
cannot see that I am right, then let them, withont 
delay, be operated upon for amau7'osis. But 
then, in God's name, is it not high time to inquire 
what should be done to correct the system, and 
stop the torrent of its evil influences? This is a 
great question ; it demands a speedy and satisfac- 
tory solution. The interests it involves are com- 
mensurate with time and eternity. 




CHAPTER XL 

REMEDY FOE THE DIABOLICAL SPIRIT AND THE 
CRIMES IN OUR COUNTRY. 




EN look around, and ask, Where is the 
remedy for the so wide-spread corrup- 
tion of all classes of society ? This is a 
most important question. It is not difficult for a 
Christian to answer it. A skilful physician, who 
wishes to cure his patient, endeavors first to re- 
move the cause of the disease. So, in like man- 
ner, if we wish to stem the torrent of the evils 
that flood the land, we must stop the source from 
w4iich they flow. 

Now the leading men and the most prominent 
journals of New York and New England, confess 
that the greater part of the wide-spread immoral- 
ity in our day and country is to be traced to the 
separation of religion from the instruction in our 
Public Schools. 

(189) 



190 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Governor Brown, addressing the Seventh Na- 
tional Teachers' Convention in St. Louis, in August 
last, said : " It is a very customary declaration to 
pronounce that education is the great safeguard of 
republics against the decay of virtue and the reign 
of immorality. Yet the facts can scarcely bear 
out the proposition. The highest civilizations, 
both ancient and modern, have sometimes been 
the most flagitious. Nowadays, certainly, your 
prime rascals have, been educated rascals." 

And indeed if we gp to Auburn, Sing Sing, and 
other prisons, and examine some of the criminals 
confined there, we will find that there is truth in 
the Governor's words. 

Do the managers of the Erie Railway lack any 
kind of intelligence that could be communicated 
in a common school? Are not those pests, the 
Washington and Albany lobbies, rather too know- 
ino;? Had not those blood-suckers, the shoddv- 
ites and army contractors, an average common 
school education? Do not the "gold rings *' and 
the "whiskey rings" know how to read and write? 
Were not Catiline of old, and Aaron Burr and 
Benedict Arnold of more recent times, men of 
intelligence ? Were not the parties to the recent 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 191 

tragedy, two of whom Mr. Beecher united in 
unholy wedlock, passable enough in point of 
merely intellectual cultivation? Mephistopheles 
was a person of surprising accomplishments, and 
the ablest debates in literature are those which 
Milton puts in the mouths of the grand synod of 
devils in Pandemonium. Byron was a prodigy 
of intelligence ; but, whether Mrs. Stowe's re- 
volting accusation be true or not, he was certainly 
a profligate. 

No one, certainly, gifted with ordinary power of 
observation, will ascribe crime solely to ignorance, 
nor will such a one fail to see that a large class of 
* the most audacious and dangerous offenders of 
both sexes are educated, nay, over-educated, ac- 
cording to the Public School standard. 

The Boston Daily Herald^ of October 20th, pub- 
lished the following as an editorial article : 

" Year after year the Chief of Police publishes 
his statistics of prostitution in this city, but how 
few of the citizens bestow more than a passing 
thought upon the misery that they represent ! 
Although these figures are large enough to make 
every lover of humanity hang his head with feel- 
mgs of sorrow and shame at the picture, we are 



192 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

assured that they represent but a little, as it were, 
of the actual licentiousness that prevails among all 
classes of society. Within a few months, a gen- 
tleman * whose scientific attainments have made 
his name a household word in all lands, has per- 
sonally investigated the subject, and the result 
has filled him with dismay ; when he sees the 
dejjths of degradation to which men and women 
have fallen, he has almost lost faith in the boasted 
civilization of the nineteenth century. In the 
course of his inquiries he has visited both the well- 
known ' houses of pleasure ' and the ' private es- 
tablishments ' scattered all over the city. He 
states that he has a list of both, with the street 
and number, the number of inmates, and many 
other facts that would perfectly astonish the peo- 
ple if made public. He freely conversed with 
the inmates, and the life-histories that were re- 
vealed were sad indeed. To his utter surprise, a 
large proportion of the ' soiled doves ' traced their 
fall to influences that met them in the Public 
Schools; and although Boston is justly proud of 
its schools, it would seem, from his story, that they 
need a thorough purification. In too many of 

* Prof. Aggassiz. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 193 

tliein the most obscene and soul-polluting books 
and pictures circulate among both sexes. The 
very secrecy with which it is done throws an al- 
most irresistible charm about it ; and to such an 
extent has the evil gone, that we fear a large pro- 
portion of both boys and girls possess some of the 
articles, which they kindly ( ?) lend to each other. 
The natural result follows, and frequently the 
most debasing and revolting practises are indulged 
in. And the evil is not confined alone to Boston. 
Other cities suffer in the same way. It is but a 
few years since the second city in the Common- 
wealth was stirred almost to its foundations by 
the discovery of an association of boys and girls 
who were Avont to indulge their passions in one 
of the school-houses of the city ; and not long ago 
another somewhat similar afiair was discovered by 
the authorities, but hushed up for fear of depop- 
ulatinsr the schools." 

"That the devil is in the PabUc /Schools, raofino: 
and rampant there among the pupils as Avell as 
among the teachers, no one can well doubt who 
has sent a little child into them, as guiltless of 
evil or unclean thoughts as a newly fallen snow- 
flake, and had him come home, in a short time, 

13 



194 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

contaminated almost beyond belief by the vileuess 
and filth which he has seen, and heard, and learned 
there." — (Ilathe Tyng Griswold, in Old and New, 
for March ; or Boston Pilot, April 6, 1872.) 

A celebrated physician of this country says in 
his book, " Satan in Society," as follows : 

" The evils and dangers of the present system 
of educating and bringing up the boys and girls of 
our country, are too obvious to require minute 
description. Irreligion and infidelity are pro- 
gressing pari passu with the advance guards of 
immorality and crime, and all are fostered, if not 
engendered, by the materialistic system of school 
instruction, and the consequent wretched training 
at home and on the play-ground. The entire ab- 
sence of all religious instruction from the school- 
room is fast bearing fruit in a generation of 
infidels, and we are becoming worse even than 
the Pagans of old, who had at least their positive 
sciences of philosophy, and their religion, such as 
it was, to oppose which was a criminal offence. 
To those who would dispute this somewhat horri- 
ble assertion, the author would point to the pub- 
lished statistics of church attendance, from which 
it appears that of the entire population but a very 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 195 

small proportion are habitual church-goers. De- 
ducting from these, again, those who attend church 
simply as a matter of fashion, or from other than 
religious motives, and there remains a minimum 
almost too small to be considered, abundantly 
sustaining our charge. The disintegration of the 
prevalent forms of religious belief, the rapid mul- 
tiplication of sects, the increase in the ranks of 
intellectual sceptics, the fashionable detractions 
from, and perversions of, the Holy Scriptures, 
acting with the influences already mentioned, may 
well cause alarm. 

" But we have not only the removal of the sal- 
utary restraints of religious influence from our 
popular system of education ; we have the pro- 
miscuous intermingling of the sexes in our Public 
Schools, which, however much we may theorize 
to the contrary, is, to say i the least, subversive of 
that modest reserve and shyness which in all ages 
have proved the true segis of virtue. We are 
bound to accept human nature as it is, and not as 
we would wish it to be, and both Christian and 
Pagan philosophy agree in detecting therein cer- 
tain very dangerous elements. Among the most 
dangerous and inevitable is the sexual instinct, 



196 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

which, implanted by the Creator for the wisest 
purposes, is, perhaps, the most potent of all evils 
when not properly restrained, retarded, and di- 
rected. This mysterious instinct develops earlier 
in proportion as the eye and the imagination are 
soonest furnished the materials upon which it 
thrives ; and, long before the age of puberty, it is 
strong, and well-nigh ungovernable, in those who 
have been allowed these unfortunate occasions. 
The boy of the present generation has more prac- 
tical knowledge of this instinct at the age of fif- 
teen, than, under proper training, he should be 
entitled to at the time of his marriage ; and the 
boy of eleven or twelve boastfully announces to 
his companions the evidences of his approaching 
virility. Nourished by languishing glances during 
the hours passed in the school-room, fanned by 
more intimate association on the journey to and 
from school, fed b}' stolen interviews and openly- 
arranged festivities — picnics, excursions, parties 
and the like — stimulated by the prurient gossip 
of the newspaper, the flash novels, sentimental 
weeklies, and magazines, the gallant of twelve 
years is the libertine of fourteen. That this pic- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 197 

ture is not overdrawn, every experienced physician 
will bear witness. 

"And as for tlie Public School-girls, they re- 
turn from their ^polishing schools ' — these dem- 
oiselles — cursed with a superficial smattering of 
everything bnt what they ought to have learned — 
physical and moral wrecks, whom we physicians 
are expected to wind up in the morning for the 
husband-hunting excitements of the evenins:. 
And these creatures are intended for wives ! But 
wives only, for it is fast going out of fashion to 
intend them for mothers — an ' accident ' of the 
kind being regarded as 'foolish^! 

" We assert, then, that the present system of 
education, by its faults of omission and commis- 
sion, is directly responsible, not, it is true, for 
the bare existence, but for the enormous prev- 
alence of vices and crimes which we deplore : and 
we call upon the civil authorities to so modify the 
obnoxious arrangements of our schools, and upon 
parents and guardians to so instruct and govern 
their charges, that the evils may be suppressed, if 
not extinguished." 

The attempt to prepare man for his duties in 
social life with morals and religion left out, is not 



198 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

only a failure, but a crime. Yes, it is not only a 
failure, but a crime of such magnitude, that so- 
ciety has already begun to suffer its consequences 
in a demoralization and general libertinage of the 
most shameful kind. This education without re- 
ligion and morals is the poisoned fountain from 
which flows, and will flow, if not purified by add- 
ino^ the essential elements now omitted, the im- 
pure streams of all kinds of vice. If God is 
despised, governments will be trampled on ; if 
God's law is hated, tlie laws of men will be vio- 
lated ; man will see only his own interest, his 
neighbor's property will only whet his appetite ; 
his neighbor's life will be only a secondary con- 
sideration ; he would, according to his creed, be 
a fool not to shed blood when his interest requires 
it; his fellow-men become imbued with his prin- 
ciples — anarchy succeeds subordination — vice 
takes the place of virtue — what was sacred is 
profaned — what was honorable becomes disgrace- 
ful — might becomes right — treatises are waste pa- 
per — honor is an empty name — the most sacred 
obligations dwindle down into mere optional 
practices — youth despises age — wisdom is folly 
— subjection to authority is laughed at as a fool- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 199 

ish dream ■ — the moral code itself soon becomes 
little more than the bugbear of the weak-minded 
— crowns are trampled under foot — thrones are 
overtm^ned — nations steeped in blood, and re- 
publics swept from the face of the earth. 

Yes, continue a little longer to educate the 
greater part of the community according to the 
present system of the Public Schools, and rest 
assured we shall soon have a hell upon earth — 
society will be stabbed to the heart by the ruffian 
assassin called godless Public School education — 
it will reel, stagger, and sink a bleeding victim to 
the ground, expiring, like the suicide, by the 
wound itself has inflicted. I truly believe that 
if Satan was presented with a blank sheet of 
paper, and bade to write on it the most fatal gift 
to man, he would simply write one word — " god- 
less schools." He might then turn his attention 
from this planet ; " godless Public Schools " would 
do the rest. 

Now what is to be done to stop the poisoned 
source from which the diabolical spirit and the 
crimes of our country flow? A certain class come 
forward and say, "Let the Bible be read in our 
Public Schools. The Bible is the grand source 



200 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of religion and morality. The Bible alone, with- 
out note or comment, is the grand source of life 
and civilization." 

Very well, let the Bible be admitted, but with 
the Bible you must send the key — the inter- 
preter. And then, which of all the Bibles, and 
whom among the numerous sects, shall be sent? 

To read the Bible, without note or comment, 
to young children, is to abandon them to danger- 
ous speculation, or to leave thorn dry and barren 
of all Christian knowledge. In mixed schools 
there is no other resource, because it is impossible 
to make any comment upon any doctrinal teach- 
iug of Christ and His Apostles, without trench- 
ing upon the conscientious opinions of some one 
or other of the listeners. "The Father and I are 
One." "The Father is greater than I." Here at 
once we have the Unitarian and the Trinitarian 
at a dead-lock ! " This is My Body." " It is the 
spirit which quickeneth, the flesh profiteth 
nothing." Here we have the primitive Lutheran, 
who believed in the real presence (consubstan- 
tially), and his Calvinistic coadjutor in reform, 
squarely at issue! "Unless you be born again 
of water and the Holy Ghost," etc. Here we 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 201 

have the Baptist and the Quaker very seriously 
divided in opinion. Nevertheless, widely as they 
differ the one from the other, there is a funda- 
mental assimilation between all the Protestant 
sects which may render it possible for them to 
unite in one educational ors^anization ; and vet 
we find many of the most enlightened and ear- 
nest among the Protestant clergy of America 
now zealously advocating the denominational sys- 
tem, such as we find it in the European countries. 
They believe that education should be distinctly 
based upon doctrinal religion, and they are liberal 
enough to insist that, by natural right as well as 
by the constitutional guarantees of our free coun- 
try, no doctrine adverse to the faith of a parent 
may lawfully be forced or surreptitiously imposed 
upon his child. It is well known, however, that 
between the Catholic faith and all Protestant 
creeds, there is a gulf which cannot be bridged 
over. It would, therefore, be simply impossible 
to adopt any religious teaching whatever in mixed 
schools, without at once interfering with Catholic 
conscience. No such teaching is attempted, as a 
general rule, we believe, in the Public Schools of 
the United States, and hence we have only a vague 



202 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

nnnoiinceraeiit of moral precepts, the utter futility 
aucl barreuness of which must be evideut to 
every one. Catholics, agreeing with very mauy 
enlightened and zealous Protestants, believe that 
secular education, administered without religion, 
is not only vain, but exceedingly pernicious ; 
that it is fast undermining the Christian faith of 
this nation ; that it is rapidly filling the land with 
rationalism ; that it is destroying the authority of 
the Holy Scriptures ; that it is educating men 
who prefix "Reverend " and affix "D.D." to their 
names, the more effectually to preach covert in- 
fidelity and immorality to Christian congregations ; 
that, instead of the saving morality of the Gos- 
pel of Christ, which rests upon revealed mys- 
teries and superuatural gifts, it is offering us that 
same old array of the natural virtues or qualities 
which helped, for a while, like rotten pillars, to 
prop up the heathen nations of old. It must, 
then, be evident to every man of common sense 
that the reading of the Bible alone, though it be 
the Word of God, will not counterbalance the re- 
sults of Pagan education. Indeed the reading of 
the Bible alone is by no means an adequate rem- 
edy to stem the torrent of the evils in our coun- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 203 

try. ^hat impurities have not lieeii committed 
under the sanction of those words of the Lord, 
"Increase and multiply" ! A host of sectarians, 
following in the wake of the Anabaptists of 
Munster, in Germany, have, on the authority of 
those w^ords, dared to legitimate polygamy. On 
such misapplication of a text from the Gospel, 
Luther, Bucerus, and Melanchthon have permitted 
Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, to have two 
wives. 

Li the name of the Bible, of the Word of God, 
Luther at first incited the German peasantry to 
revolt against their rulers, and then, frightened 
at his own work, he persuaded the princes to 
massacre the peasants. John of Leyden found, 
in his studies of the Bible, that he should marry 
eleven women at once. Herman felt himself 
clearly designated, in the Bible, as the Envoy of 
the Lord. Nicholas learned from it that there 
was no necessity of anything connected with 
faith, and that we must live in sin in order that 
grace may abound. Sympson pretends to find in 
the Scriptures an ordination that men should 
walk in the streets stark naked, to teach the rich 
a lesson that they must divest themselves of 



204 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

everything. Richard Hill justified, with the 
Bible ill hand, adultery and manslaughter as deeds 
never failing to work out some good purpose, 
especially when joined to incest, in which case 
more saints are added to the earth and more 
blessed to the heavens. Even on the avowal of 
honest Protestants, no crime or abomination has 
ever failed to find its pretended justification in 
some scriptural text. 

What, then, must we think of the reading of 
the Bible, when its reading, without note or com- 
ment, leads to such consequences? Indeed what 
has been said on the evil consequences of the 
Public School sj'stem on society proves sufiiciently 
that the reading of the Bible is no adequate 
means at all to stem the torrent of crimes in our 
country. Nowhere has the Bil)le been read more 
frequently, during school-hours, than in the 
Public Schools of the New England States, and 
yet nowhere have the results of these schools 
proved more fatal than in these very States. 
The reading of the Bible alone, therefore, though 
it be the Word of God, will not counterbalance 
the results of Pagan education. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 205 

There are others who maintain "that reliofious 
instruction should be left to parents," 

Now it is not only idle, but cruel, to say that 
the place and provision for such Christian instruc- 
tion and formation is under the roof of the pa- 
rents' home ; that the best school is the family. 
This is indeed true of the early formation by af- 
fection, influence, example, by which fathers and 
mothers foshion the first outlines of character, and 
mature them Avhile the education of their children 
is advancing. None have reminded parents of 
this more faithfully than the Pastors of the 
Church. But to say that fathers and mothers are 
to educate their children, and that their home is 
to be the school of Christian instruction, cate- 
chetical teaching, formation of conscience, prep- 
aration for sacraments, and the like, is either the 
shallow talk of men who know nothing of Chris- 
tian education, or care nothing for it, or a heartless 
mockery of our poor. The rich, the refined, the 
educated, whose time is their own, do not educate 
their own children. They systematically send 
them to schools and colleges, or pay for tutors or 
governesses under their own roof. They wisely 
shrink from a work for which, if they have the 



206 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

time, they seldom have the acquirements or the 
gift, or the method of the perseverance or the 
patience. And if this be, as it is, universally 
true of those who are the most competent, and 
the most provided with all the means and oppor- 
tunities for the work, now is it not hardness of 
heart, or want of common sense, to say that the 
children of the poor are to learn reading, and 
writing, and summing, indeed, at school, but that 
their Christian teaching and formation must be 
provided at home ? The workingmen of these 
countries are at labor from twilight to twilight. 
Their wives have the burden of the whole family; 
the poor mother is alone both the head and the 
servant of the whole house. When is she to 
teach, and train, and shape, and fashion the char- 
acters, hearts, consciences, intellects of the chil- 
dren? Is it to be done in the midst of a day's 
work, or in the weariness after the day's work is 
done? And are they competent to do what the 
mother of the rich cannot do? Broken with 
cares, wearied by work, suffering from poverty, 
often, faintino: from sickness because worn out 
with all these Inirdcns, how shall the father or 
mother of a family, huddled into a single 'room, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 207 

do what the rich and the educated, in their spa- 
cious houses, and with abundant leisure, never 
dream of attempting? 

Moreover, as I have shown in a preceding 
chapter, it must be admitted that a mother not 
educated in religious and moral principles cannot 
inform the mind and heart of the young child ; 
this fully divsposes of the argument that domestic 
teaching alone will supply what is acknowledged 
to be wanting in the "Public Schools." It is to 
be hoped that we shall hear no more of this 
heartless talk. 

"Well, then," some will say, "let our children 
receive, in Sunday-schools, that amount of re- 
ligious culture and instruction which the State 
says shall not be given in the school, and which 
is believed to be so essential in the education of 
the young." 

Now it is in vain to open our Sunday-schools 
and expect to cure, on one day of the week, or 
rather a few hours of that day (when this even 
depends, in a great part, on the weather), the 
work not only of the other six, but the fruits of 
years of an ill-directed and godless State educa- 
tion. The Sunday-schools are nothing but so 



208 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

many '"' Poor-mavUs sootJdng plasters" on Christian 
consciences. The want of relio:ious traininof for 
six days in the week, added to the positive 
knowledge of error on all religious subjects 
which youths may acquire during that time, will 
more than counterbalance the best-directed efforts 
of parents and the clergy to give any definite 
knowledge on the truths of revelation. The 
question whether or not religious education is 
compatible with Public School education, has 
been tried in all English-speaking countries, and 
in parts of Germany, with this result : that, as 
a class, the Public School children are without 
any adequate religious knowledge or training. 
The clergy may have Sunday-schools, as they 
have, in all their churches ; but what can children 
learn, in a few hours, of a subject which took 
three years from the Saviour of man to teach 
even to the apostles? And then the apostles, af- 
ter three years of instruction from the lips of 
Christ, did not understand the Christian religion ; 
they were slow to understand, and, after His res- 
urrection, Christ uj)braided them with incredulity 
and hardness of heart. Even the children of the 
Public Schools, as far as experience goes, lose 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 209 

all taste for the study of religion, which is de- 
veloped among the children of Christian schools 
without any effort. Sunday-schools, at best, may 
train children to be Christians one day in the 
week, and Pagans six days. School-days over, the 
usual result will be Pagans all the seven days of 
the week. 

If it is in vain to say, " Let the Bible be read in 
our Public Schools," or " let our children receive 
religious instruction from their parents, or in Sun- 
day-schools, in order to arrest the fast-spreading 
crimes of the land," it is still more in vain to say, 
"Let the Legislature be called upon." 

It cannot be denied that the higher culture of 
America has, from the time of the introduction 
of the present Public School system, ceased to be 
Christian. What is the natural harvest of this 
sowing? It is that we have already a generation 
of men, thousands of whom are not fit to be the 
heads and fathers of families. But this is not all ; 
w^e have also ever so many guides of public opin- 
ion, ever so many ministers of public affairs, and 
ever so many lawgivers of the United States, 
who are infidels and profligates ; who see only 
themselves in all they do, who desire only to fret 
14 



210 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

out their little hour on the political stage vntJi a 
sharp eye to their oivn interests, without the small- 
est desire to secure the Republic against future 
disasters — who cannot, or wiU not, see the dis- 
astrous storms the ship of the Republic will soon 
have to encounter. What good, then, could be 
expected from calling upon the Legislature? It 
would only show its impotency, or, what is more, 
its own corruption. The executive is unable, 
suspected, or often found in the " ring,'" or, to 
use a common expression, "Justice stinks." The 
judiciary, by its very nature, always timid, and 
too often time-serving, can do nothing. Well, 
then, the press: what shall be said of it? Only 
this : that it would be unreasonable to expect it to 
possess the supernatural powers of healing such a 
multitude of foul lepers, or to be able at any time 
to lift itself far above the level of the general 
average of the age and country. 

What, then, must be done to save society from 
the perils that menace it — to stem the tide that 
bids fair to sweep away, eventually, even civiliza- 
tion itself? We must proceed on a true principle. 
When we proceed on a true principle, the more 
logically and completely we carry it out the better ; 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 211 

but when Ave start with a false principle, the more 
logical we are, and the farther we push it, the 
worse. Our consistency increases, instead of di- 
minishing, the evils we would cure. The reform- 
ers started wrono;. They would reform the Church 
by placing her under human control. Their suc- 
cessors have in each generation found they did 
not go far enough, and have, each in its turn, 
struggled to push it farther and farther, till they 
find themselves without any church life, without 
faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if 
there be even a God. So, in the question of edu- 
cation, the upholders of the Public School system 
have pushed the false principle " that all individ- 
ual, domestic, social, and political evils are due to 
ignorance, and can only be prevented by high 
intellectual culture," till they have nearly taught 
away all religious belief and morality, have well- 
nigh abolished the femily which is the social unit, 
and find that the evils they pretended to prevent, 
and the wrongs they sought to redress, are fast 
increasing. 

We must, then, proceed on a true principle in 
trying to remedy the profligacy that disgraces so 
many of our crowded centres, and the demoraliza- 



212 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

tion that is fast orauG^renins: even our rural dis- 
tricts. 

One thousand eight hundred and forty-odd years 
ago, you might have observed a poor, meanly- 
clad wanderer, wending his steps on the Appian 
way to the Capitol of the world, — the wealthy, 
magnificent, and ungodly city of Rome. He has 
passed its gates, and threads his way unobserved 
through its populous streets. On every side he 
beholds gorgeous palaces raised at the expense of 
downtrodden nationalities ; stately temples ded- 
icated to as many false gods as nations were con- 
gregated in Rome ; public baths and amphitheatres 
devoted to pleasure and to cruelty ; statues, mon- 
uments, and triumphal arches raised to the mem- 
ory of blood-thirsty tyrants. He passes warriors 
and senators, beggars and cripples, effeminate 
and dissolute women, gladiators and slaves, mer- 
chants and statesmen, orators and philosophers ; — 
all classes, all ranks, all conditions of men of 
every language and color under the sun. Every- 
where he sees a maddening race for pleasure ; 
everywhere the impress of luxury, everywhere 
the full growth of crime, side by side with inde- 
scribable suffering, diabolical cruelty and barbar- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 213 

ity. And this' poor, meanly-clad wanderer was 
St. Peter. Oh ! how the noble heart of the fish- 
erman of Galilee must have bled, when he observed 
the empire of Satan so- supreme — when he wit- 
nessed the shocking licentiousness of the temple 
and the homestead ; when he saw the fearful 
degradation of woman groaning under the load of 
her own infamy ; when he saw the heart-rending 
inhumanity which slew the innocent babes and 
threw them into the Tiber ; when he saw how 
prisoners of war, slaves, and soldiers were trained 
for bloody fights, and entered the arena of the 
amphitheatre, and strove whole days to strangle 
one another, for the special entertainment of the 
Roman people. When Peter came to Rome, that 
city was the condensation of all the idolatry, all the 
oppression, all the injustice, all the immoralities 
of the world ; for the world was centred in Rome. 
Here, then, were evils to be remedied similar 
to those of our day and country. Pagan philos- 
ophers, poets and orators, had tried their best to 
cure these evils and to elevate mankind, bat they 
had tried in vain. What they were unable to bring 
about, St. Peter accomplished by preaching to the 
Roman people Christianity — the religion of Jesus 



214 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

Christ — which imparts to the mind infallibly the 
light of truth, and lays down for the will authori- 
tatively the unchangeable principles of supernatural 
morality, true prosperity, true happiness, and 
peace on earth and for eternity. Indeed, it is a 
well-known fact that the Capitoline temple, and 
with it the many shrines of idolatry, the golden 
house of Nero, and with it Roman excess and Ro- 
man cruelty, the throne of the Ctesars, and with it 
Roman oppression and Roman injustice, gave way 
and disappeared in proportion as the light of 
Christianity was infused into that foul mass, into 
that rotten society, centred in Rome. It was this 
Christian religion that changed a sinful people 
into saints, and so many holy inhabitants of heaven. 
And what the blessings of the religion of Christ 
brought al)out in Rome, they bring about wher- 
ever they are diffused. Hence all true lovers of 
the country tell us that there is but one remedy 
for the cure of the diabolical spirit and the crimes 
of our country — it is to teach our children the 
truth and blessings of the Christian religion. It 
is the Christian religion that infallibly and authori- 
tatively teaches the duties of civil authorities to- 
wards their subjects, of husbands towards their 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 215 

wives, of parents towards their children, of mas- 
ters towards their servants, of pastors towards 
their flocks, of the faithful towards their pastors, 
of servants towards their masters, of wives to- 
wards their husbands, of children towards their 
parents, of subjects towards their lawfully con- 
stituted civil authorities, of all men towards God, 
their Supreme Master, and just Re warder of good 
and evil. Moreover, it is the Christian relio;ion 
alone that affords men the means to obtain God's 
grace, which enlightens the mind to see the beauty 
of virtue, inflames the heart with love for it, and 
inclines the will to practise it with perseverance. 
If we then wish to be sure of having a virtuous 
and virile people, we must Christianize our youth, 
especially during their school hours ; we must 
bring up our children in a religious atmosphere. 
I have already remarked that religion may be 
compared to leaven. As leaven must be diff'used 
throughout the entire mass in order to produce 
its effects, so the Christian religion must be thor- 
oughly diff'used throughout the child's entire edu- 
cation, in order to be solid and effective. 

Not a moment of the hours of school should be 
left with(mt relig-ious influence. It is the constant 



216 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

breathing of the air that preserves our bodily life, 
and it is the constant dwelling in a religious at- 
mosphere that preserves the life of the youtliful 
soul. Religion is not a study, or an exercise that 
may be restricted to a certain place, or a certain 
hour. It is a fliith and a law which ought to be 
felt everywhere, and which in this manner alone 
can exercise all its beneficent influence upon our 
minds and lives. It will never do to suffer the 
child to devote six days in the week to worldly 
science, and to depend on Sunday for a religious 
trainino:. This would l)o like reserving the salt 
which should season our food during the week, 
and taking it all in a dose on Sunday. By such a 
system we may make expert shop-boys, first-rate 
accountants, shrewd and thriving "earth-worms " ; 
but it would be presumption to think of thus mak- 
insc srood citizens, still less virtuous Christians. 

Let us be assured that our young men know 
their duties to God, to their neighbors, and to 
themselves, and they will then, l)ut not till then, 
be true Christians. In being true Christians they 
will be dutiful sons, faithful husbands, affection- 
ate fathers, gentle masters, honest servants, law- 
loving and law-abiding citizens, true statesmen, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 217 

good soldiers, and valiant defenders of the coimtr}^, 
chaste and sober companions, the joy of God and 
of society.. 

But, above all, let us be assured that our 
daughters are educated as women, not as men. 
Women are not needed as men ; they are needed 
as women : to do, not what men can do as well as 
they, but what men cannot do. Woman was 
created to be a wife and a mother : that is her 
destiny. To that destiny all her instincts point, 
and for it nature has specially qualified her. Her 
proper sphere is home, and her proper function is 
the care of the household, to manage a family, to 
take care of children, and attend to their early 
training. For this she is endowed with patience, 
endurance, passive courage, quick sensibilities, a 
sympathetic nature, and great executive and ad- 
ministrative ability. She was born to be a queen 
in her own household, and make home cheerful, 
bright, and happy. There it is that she is really 
great, noble, almost divine. 

Now the general complaint is that the greater 
part of our Public School-girls are not fit to be 
good wives, mothers and housekeepers. As wives, 
they forget what they owe to their husbands, are 



218 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

capricious and vain, often light and frivolous, ex- 
travas^ant and foolish, bent on havins' their own 
Avay, though ruinous to the family, and generally 
contriving, by coaxings, blandishments, or pout- 
ings, to get it. They hold obedience in horror, 
and seek only to govern their husbands and all 
around them. 

As mothers, they not only neglect, but dis- 
dain, the retired and simple domestic virtues, 
and scorn to be tied down to the modest but 
essential duties — the drudgery, they call it — of 
mothers ; they manage to be relieved of house- 
hold cares, especially of child-bearing, and of the 
duty of bringing up children. They repress their 
maternal instincts, and the horrible crime of in- 
fonticide before birth now becomes so fearfully 
prevalent, that the American nation is actually 
threatened with instiuction. If they condescend 
to have one or two children, they set them an ill 
example ; for if children see that their mother, as 
a wife, forgets to honor and obey her husband, 
and always wants to have her own way with him, 
they soon lose all respect for her, and insist on 
having their own way with her, and usually suc- 
ceed. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 219 

As housekeepers they devote their time to 
pleasure or amusement, wasting their life in lux- 
urious ease, in reading sentimental or sensational 
novels, or in following the caprices of fashion ; 
thus they let the household go to ruin, and the 
honest earnings of the husband becomes speedily 
insufficient for the family expenses, and he is 
sorely tempted to provide for them by rash spec- 
ulation or by fraud, which, though it may be 
carried on for a while without detection, is sure 
to end in disgrace and ruin at last. 

There is indeed nothing which more grieves 
the wise and good, or makes them tremble for the 
future of the country, than the way in which our 
daughters are educated in the Public Schools. 
When they become wives and mothers, they have 
none of the habits or character necessary to gov- 
ern their household and to train their children 
properly. Hence arise that growing neglect or 
laxity of family discipline ; that insubordination, 
that lawlessness, and precocious depravity of 
Young America; that almost total lack of filial 
reverence and obedience with the children of this 
generation. Exceptions there happily are ; but 
the number of children that grow up without any 



220 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

proper training or discipline at home is fearfully 
large, and their evil example corrupts not a few of 
those who are well brought up. The country is 
no better than the town. As a rule, children are 
no longer subjected to a steady and firm, but mild 
and judicious, discipline, or trained to habits of 
filial love, respect and obedience. These habits 
are acquired only in a school of obedience, made 
pleasant and cheerful by a mother's playful smile 
and a mother's love. The care and management 
of children during their early years belong spe- 
cially to the mother. The education of children 
may be said to commence from the moment they 
open their eyes and ears to the sights and sounds 
of the world about them ; and of these sights and 
sounds the words and example of the mother are 
the most impressive and the most enduring. Of 
all lessons, those learned at the knees of a good 
mother sink the deepest into the mind and heart, 
and last the longest. Many of the noblest and 
best men that ever lived, and adorned and ben- 
efited the world, have declared that, under God, 
they owed everything that was good and useful 
in their lives to the love of virtue, and truthful- 
ness, and piety, and the fear of God instilled into 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 221 

their hearts by the lips of a pious mother. It is 
her special function to plant and develop in their 
young and impressible minds the seeds of virtue, 
love, reverence, and obedience, and to train her 
daughters, by precept and example, not to catch 
husbands that will give them splendid establish- 
ments, but to be, in due time, modest and affec- 
tionate wives, tender and judicious mothers, and 
prudent and careful housekeepers. This the 
father cannot do ; and his interference, except by 
wise counsel, and to honor and sustain the mother, 
will generally be worse than nothing. The task 
devolves specially on the mother ; for it demands 
the sympathy with children which is peculiar to 
the female heart, the strong maternal instinct im- 
planted by nature, and directed by a judicious 
education, that blending of love and authority, 
sentiment and reason, sweetness and power, so 
characteristic of the noble and true-hearted woman, 
and which so admirably fit her to be loved and 
honored, only less than adored, in her own house- 
hold. But though the duties and responsibilities 
of mothers in this matter are the heaviest and 
most important for themselves, and for the society 



222 ruBLic SCHOOL education. 

of all others, yet there are iioue which are more 
neo:lecteLl. 

Now wives and mothers, by neglecting their 
domestic duties and the proper family discipline, 
fail to offer the necessary resistance to growing 
lawlessness and crime, aggravated, if not gener- 
ated, by the false notions of freedom and equality 
so widely entertained. It is only by home discip- 
line, and the early habits of reverence and obe- 
dience to which our children are trained, that the 
license the government tolerates, and the courts 
hardly dare attempt to restrain, can be counter- 
acted, and the community made a law-loving and 
a law-abiding community. 

Why is it that the very bases of society have 
been sapped, and the conditions of good govern- 
ment despised, or denounced under the name of 
despotism? Why is it that social and political 
life is poisoned in its source, and the blood of the 
nation corrupted? It is because wives and moth- 
ers have failed in their domestic duties, and the 
discipline of their families. And they have foiled 
in this, because the State did not, and could not, 
bring them up to it. 

The evils we have to cure cannot be reached by 



rUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 223 

the reading of the Bible, by Sunday-school traiii- 
iug, nor by any possible political or legislative 
action. Men or women cannot be legislated into 
virtue. That the remedy, to a great extent, must 
be supplied by woman's action and influence, we 
not only concede, but claim. But it is only as 
woman, as wife, as mother, that she must do the 
work : as woman, to soften asperities, and to re- 
line what else were coarse and brutal ; as wife, to 
sustain with her afi*ection the resolutions and just 
aspirations of her husband, and render home 
bright and cheerful — " the sweetest place on 
earth" ; as mother, to direct and inspire the noble 
and righteous aspirations of her sons — to train 
and form her children to early habits of piety, 
filial love and reverence, of obedience to God's 
LiAV, and respect for authority. 

There are, in our day, comparatively few 
mothers who are qualified to do this. But what 
they can and should do is to see that they have a 
better and more thorough system of education for 
their sons, but especially for their daughters — a 
system of education that specially adapts them to 
the destiny of their sex, and prepares them to 
find their happiness in their homes, and the satis- 



224 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

faction of their highest ambition in discharging its 
manifold duties, so much higher, nobler, and more 
essential to the virtue and well-being of the com- 
munity, the nation, the society, and to the life 
and progress of the human race, than any which 
devolve on king or emperor, magistrate or legis- 
lator. "We would not have their generous instincts 
repressed, their quick sensibilities blunted, or 
their warm, sympathetic nature chilled, nor even 
the lighter graces and accomplishments neglected ; 
but we would have them all directed and harmo- 
nized by solid intellectual instruction, and moral 
and religious culture. We Avould have them, 
whether rich or poor, trained to find the centre of 
their affections in their home ; their chief ambition 
in making it cheerful, bright, radiant and happy. 
Whether destined to grace a magnificent palace, 
or to adorn the humble cottage of poverty, this 
should be the ideal aimed at in their education. 
They should be trained to love home, and to find 
their pleasure in sharing its cares and performing 
its duties, however arduous or painful. 

There are, as I have said, comparatively few 
mothers qualified to give their daughters such an 
education, especially in our own country; for 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 225 

comparatively feAv have received such an education 
themselves, or are able fully to apj)reciate its im- 
portance. They can find little help in the fashion- 
able boarding-schools for finishing yonng ladies ; 
and, in general, these schools only aggravate the 
evils to be cured. The best and the only respect- 
able schools for dauo-hters that we have in the 
country are the conventual schools taught by 
women consecrated to God, and specially devoted 
to the work of education. These schools, indeed, 
are not always all that might be wished. The re- 
ligious cannot, certainly, supply the place of the 
mother in giving their pupils that practical home- 
training so necessary, and which can be given 
only by mothers who have themselves been prop- 
erly educated ; but they go as far as is possible in 
remedying the defects of the present generation 
of mothers, and in counteracting their follies 
and vain ambitions. With all the faults that can 
be alleged against any of them, the conventual 
schools, even as they are, it must be conceded, are 
infinitel}^ the best schools for daughters in the land, 
and, upon the whole, worthy of the high praise and 
liberal patronage their devotedness and disinter- 
estedness secure them. We have seldom found 

15 



226 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

their graduates weak and sickly seutimentalists. 
They develop in their pupils a cheerful aud 
healthy tone, and a high sense of duty; give 
them solid moral, religious instruction ; cultivate 
successfully their moral and religious affections ; 
refine their manners, purify their tastes, and send 
them out feeling that life is serious, life is earnest, 
and resolved always to act under a deep sense of 
their personal responsibilities ; meet whatever may 
be their lot with brave hearts, and without mur- 
muring and repining. 

The editor of the New Yorh Herald prefaces an 
account of a Catholic academy with the following 
remarks : 

"However divided public opinion may be as to 
secular and religious schools — no matter what 
differences in opinion may exist in the community 
as to the policy of aiding or discouraging purely 
sectarian systems of education — there can be but 
little opposition from any quarter to the verdict 
of experience given by many thousand families, 
that these devoted women — the Sisters of the 
Catholic Church — are the best teachers of young 
girls, the safest instructors in this age of loose, 
worldly, and rampant New Englandism. Those 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 227 

matters of education which make the lady, in their 
hands, subordinate to the great object of making 
every girl committed to their care a true woman, 
are imbued with those principles which have made 
our mothers our pride and boast. Those of us 
who cavil at Catholic pretensions, sneer at their 
assumption, and ridicule their observances, must 
acknowledo:e that the Sisters are far ahead and 
above any organization of the sort of which Prot- 
estantism can boast. The self-sacrifice, the devo- 
tion, the single-mindedness, the calm trust in a 
Power unseen, the humility of manner and rare 
unselfishness which characterize the Sisters, has 
no parallel in any organization of the reformed 
faith. The war placed the claims of the Sisters 
of Charity fairly before the country ; but these 
Sisters of the different branches have, in peace, 
* victories no less renowned than in war.' Edu- 
cating the poor children, directing the untutored 
mind of the youthful alien savage in our midst, or 
holding the beacon of intellectual advancement 
bright and burning before the female youth of the 
country, and beckoning them to advance, they are 
ever doing a good and noble work." 

We do not disguise the fact that our hopes for 



228 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 

the future, in great measure, rest on these con- 
ventual schools ; if they are multiplied, and the 
number of their graduates increase, and enter 
U2)on the serious duties of life, the ideal of female 
education will become higher and broader ; a 
nobler class of wives and mothers will exert a 
healthy and purifying influence ; religion will be- 
come a real power in the Republic ; the moral 
tone of the community, and the standard of pri- 
vate and public morality, will be elevated ; and 
thus may gradually be acquired the virtues that 
will enable us, as a people, to escape the dangers 
that now threaten us, and to save the Republic as 
well as our own souls. 

Sectarians, indeed, declaim against these 
schools, and denounce them as a subtle device of 
Satan to make their daughters "Romanists"; but 
Satan prol)aldy dislikes "Romanism" even more 
than sectarians do, and is much more in earnest 
to suppress or ruin our conventual schools, in 
which he is not held in much honor, than he is 
to sustain and encourage them. At any rate, our 
countrymen who have such a horror of the re- 
ligion it is our glory to profess, that they cannot 
call it by its true name, would do well, before de- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 229 

nouncing these schools, to establish better schools 
for daughters of their own. These modest, retir- 
ing" Sisters and Niins, who have no new theories 
and schemes of social reform, and upon whom a 
certain class of women lool?: down with haughty 
contempt, as weak, spiritless, and narrow-minded, 
have chosen the better part, and are doing in- 
finitely more to raise woman to her true dignity, 
and for the political and social, as well as for the 
moral and religious, progress of the country, than 
the Woman's Eights party, with all their grand 
conventions, brilliant speeches, stirring lectures 
and spirited journals. By way of parenthesis, we 
dare tell these women who are wastins; so much 
time, energy, philanthropy, and brilliant elo- 
quence in agitating for female suffrage and elig- 
ibility, which, if conceded, would only make 
matters worse, that, if they have the real interest 
of their sex or of the community at heart, they 
should turn their attention to the education of 
daughters for their special functions, not as men, 
but as women, who are one day to be wives and 
mothers — woman's true destiny. 

Undoubtedly the special destiny of women is to 
be wives and mothers : but we are told that there 



230 PUBLIC SCHOOL p:ducation. 

arc thousands of women who are not and cannot 
be wives and mothers. In the older and more 
densely settled States of the Union, there is an 
excess of females over males, and all cannot get 
husbands if they would. Yet, we repeat, woman 
was created to be a wife and a mother, and the 
woman that is not fails of her special destiny'-. 
Under the Christian dispensation honorable pro- 
vision has been made for that large class of women 
who, either from preference, or from any other 
cause, do not marry. Virginity, which was re- 
garded as a reproach, became an honor under the 
Christian law. Those women who do not wish, 
or cannot be wives and mothers in the natural 
order, may be both, in the spiritual order, if they 
will, and are properly educated for it. They can 
be wedded to the Holy Spirit, and be the mothers 
of minds and hearts. The holy virgins and de- 
vont widows who consecrated themselves to God, 
in or out of religious orders, are both, and fulfil 
in the spiritual order their proper destiny. Wo 
hold them in high honor, because they become 
mothers to the motherless, to the poor, to the 
forsaken, to the homeless. They instruct the ig- 
norant, nurse the sick, help the helpless, tend the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 231 

aged, catch the last breath of the dyhig, pray for 
the unbelieving and the cold-hearted, and elevate 
the moral tone of society, and shed a cheering 
radiance along the pathway of life. They have no 
need to be idle or useless. In a world of so much 
sin and sorrow, sickness and suffering, there is 
always work enough for them to do ; it is on the 
poor and motherless, the destitute and the down- 
trodden, the sinful and the sorrowful, the aged 
and infirm, the ignorant and the neglected, that, 
under proper direction, they can lavish the wealth 
of their affections, the tenderness of their hearts, 
and the ardor of their charity, and find true joy 
and happiness in so doing, ample scope for 
woman's noblest ambition, and chances enough to 
acquire merit in the sight of heaven, and true 
glory, that will shine brighter and brighter for- 
ever. They thus are dear to God, dear to the 
Church, and dear to Christian society. They are 
to be envied, not pitied. It is only because you 
have lost faith in Christ, faith in the holy Catholic 
Church, and have become gross in your minds, 
of "earth earthy," that you deplore the lot of the 
women who cannot, in the natural order, find hus- 
bands, and call them, contemptuously, "old maids " 



232 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

— a miserable relic of lieathenism or Protestant- 
ism, neither of which have anything to hold out 
to old maids. But Jesus Christ has provided for 
them better than you are able to understand. 

The Father of our country, then, was right 
when he said, in his farewell address to the 
American nation, that relisfion and morality are 
the " props" of society, and the "pillars " of the 
State. Let us, then, rest assured that the best 
way to check the torrent of infidelity and immor- 
ality, to avert impending evils, to prepare the 
golden age of our Republic, is to infuse good 
morals by the most powerful of all means — Ohris- 
Han Education. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM ALONE SATISFIES 
THE "WANTS OF ALL, AND CAN SAVE THE RE- 
PUBLIC. 




IE live in a time of great activity and 
change, and intense worldliness. "Men 
run to and fro and knowledge is in- 
creased." Would that we could feel that there is 
an increase also in integrity and virtue, and re- 
spect for Religion. We all know that it is not 
so. So far as we can form accurate ideas of the 
social and religious condition of men at any par- 
ticular period in the world's history, we may 
doubt whether the words of the Apostle St. Paul, 
describing what shall come to pass in what he 
calls "the last days," ever touched any people so 
closely as they do those of our times and country. 
"Men," he says, "shall be lovers of themselves, 
(233) 



234 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemous, disobe- 
dient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without af- 
fection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, 
unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, 
puffed up, and lovers of pleasure, more than 
lovers of God." Well may the Apostle speak of 
such times as "dangerous times." When the 
moral atmosphere we breathe is so full of what the 
Scriptures call "the spirit of this world," we can 
only hope to escape its corrupting iiiflnences by 
doing all in our power to diffuse Christian prin- 
ciples among the rising generation, by means of 
truly Christian schools. 

The arrano-ements can be made Avithout dis- 
turbing the general system. It is this : "Lot the 
State aid, but not direct, a system of plain Eng- 
lish education, confined to all those whose cir- 
cumstances are limited, or who are left destitute, 
or orphans. Let all religious denominations, 
when they desire it, have the privilege of con- 
ducting their own schools, subject only to gen- 
eral uniform inspection and examination on the 
part of the State, and have their proportion of the 
school-moneys." The wealthy classes will know 
how to take care of the education of their own 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 235 

children, as they do of their family affairs in 
other matters. 

The advocates of this " Denominational Sys- 
tem " yield to none in their endeavors to secure 
to all the children within the State a good, solid, 
and practical education, according to the religious 
convictions and circumstances of all. This, they 
claim, is not, and cannot be furnished on the 
present plan. Thej do not, as falsely charged, 
desire to distract or divide, or introduce secta- 
rianism into the Public Schools ; on the contrary, 
they wish to satisfy conscience by yielding to all 
others what they claim for themselves, and cannot 
help denouncing the present system as practically 
resulting in a form of sectarianism worse than 
any yet professed : to wit, "IndifFerentism." 

If the "Denominational System" was adopted, 
it would satisfy and do justice to all, and, at the 
same time, excite such rivalry and competition 
among teachers as to advance education, whilst 
it diminishes its cost in the same ratio. We 
have seen that it costs about four times as much 
to give the miserable infidel instruction in the 
Public Schools, as it does to give a good Christian 
education in the denominational schools. What 



236 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

possible objection, then, can there be to adopt the 
denominational, or separate system, when it costs 
fonr times less, and imparts, to say the least, as 
good an edncation to the greatest r.number of 
children? It is no argument to urge that 
schools would be sectarian. We have sectarian 
churches, and various shades and differences of 
belief, already. This would not alter one or 
the other a particle. The State cannot impose 
uniformity on churches ; why force it on schools? 
Indeed it is worse, inasmuch as this scholastic 
conformity or uniformity is against all religions, 
and in favor of infidelit}'-, or the no-religious sect, 
if there be such a one. It discriminates against 
the believers, and is in favor of the unbelievers. 

But it is easy to see what the matter is. It is 
not religion these men fear so much as competition. 
One session's trial of the separate system would 
so clearly demonstrate to the public the economy 
and advantages of this plan, that the troop of 
paid teachers, officers, musicians, and others, who 
are fattening at the expense of a credulous 
people, would be exposed, and have to take their 
"carpet-bags" and tramp. However, I have no 
cause of quarrel with the employes, male or fe- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 237 

male, of the Public Schools. They do not elect 
themselves, nor make their salaries, and they are not 
to be blamed for taking them. If the clever gentle- 
man who draws (in one State, at least) |2,750 for 
ten months, four hours' a clay work, or the accom- 
plished lady who gets $2,000 for the same time 
and labor, or the three musicians at $2,000 each, 
or the humble, but perhaps not less useful, corps of 
" school-sweepers " ( janitors) , who are rewarded 
with $16,886.50, or the officers (three), who 
pocket $14,457.90 salary, and $20,771.96 office- 
expenses ! ! are so handsomely rewarded, it is 
their good fortune, and not their fault. There is, 
doubtless, a great deal of human nature in their 
composition, as well as others. 

There is no earthly way of giving satisfaction 
to all, except by granting the denominational 
system, thereby leaving to all sects and denom- 
inations, as well as to those who do not ransfe 
themselves under any specific form at all, to ap- 
ply a fair proportion of the school-money. All 
those who prefer the present plan would have no 
change to make, and all those who desire the sep- 
arate plan would have the right to select their 
own class-books and teachers ; in other words, 



238 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

would have the interior manfigement of their own 
schools. This is the way church matters are 
managed to the satisftiction of all. Peoples' 
views and convictions on education are just as 
conscientious and distinct as on religion, and 
they have just as good a right to them. If any 
man denies this truth, I would like him to give 
his reasons. 

There is one other thing to be taken into con- 
sideration here: if, as is claimed, all, from the 
highest to the lowest, have a right to an education 
at the hands of the State, and if, as is admitted, 
all should be instructed in their moral and relig- 
ious duties, if not by the State, at least by their 
parents and pastors, who will instruct the poor 
little orphans, the very class for whose benefit the 
public provide an education — who, I say, will 
instruct them in the way they should go? who 
will answer for these little "waifs of society"? 
They ask for bread, and the State gives them a 
stone ; it has, with the best intentions in the 
world, no better to give them. These consider- 
ations have compelled most of the European 
States, as well as our neighbors — the Canadiiins 
— to abandon the godless system, and establish 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 239 

separate schools, when asked to do so by the 
members of any denomination.* 

There is no exception to this ride, except here! 
With all our boasted progress, we are behind all 
civilized nations in this important particular. 

Now by adopting this fair method, the poor 
orphans and ragged children, who have the first 
and best claim of all, would be educated. As it 
is, it is a notorious fact, that as far as Public 
Schools are concerned, they are left out in the 
cold. This fact is capable of being demonstrated 
to any lady or gentleman who will visit the Cath- 
olic orphanages and poor schools of any city. If 
any one doubts tliis, and does me the honor of 

* By " An Act to restore to Eoman Catholics in Upper Can- 
ada certain rights in respect to Separate Schools," passed May 
5, 1863, they provided that " the Eoman Catholic separate 
schools shall be entitled to a share in the fund annually granted 
by the legislature of the province for the support of common 
schools, and shall be entitled also to a share in all other public 
grants, investments, and allotments for common school pur- 
poses now made or hereafter to be made by the municipal au- 
tliorities, according to the average number of pupils attending 
such school, as compared with the whole average number of 
pupils attending schools in the same city, town, village or 
township." — Cap. 5, sec. 20. 



240 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

putting himself at my disposal, I will show him 
or her thousands of such poor ragged little ones 
in one evening. Now is it not drawing largely 
upon public credulity, as well as on the public 
purse, to ask for thousands for high schools, and 
normal schools, etc., to educate the children, in 
great part, of the rich, or, at best, comparatively 
well to do, and turn their backs on the poor 
fatherless orphans and the ragged children of the 
poor widow or laboring man? Will anybody who 
has his eyesight doubt or deny this? If so, he 
can be convinced, any day of the week, by looking 
at the class and style of boys and girls who go to 
the upper Public Schools, and observing the boys 
and girls (several hundreds in number) who go 
to the poor schools of the Sisters of Mercy, or, 
in fact, to any other charity convent school. 

The Bible, or religious education in schools, will 
ever come up to vex and torment the public, es- 
pecially the Catholic portion of the community, 
until the right of separate schools is granted. It 
is especially the Catholics that do and must insist 
upon having separate schools, for it is the Cath- 
olics that have always done all in their power to 
establish and maintain the republican form of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 241 

government, and it is throngh the influence of 
Catholicity alone that our Republic can be main- 
tained, and increased in power and glory. 

A body which has lost the principle of its ani- 
mation becomes dust. Hence it is an axiom that 
the change or perversion of the principles by 
which anything was produced, is the destruction 
of that very thing ; if you can change or pervert 
the principles from which anything springs, you 
destroy it. For instance, one single foreign ele- 
ment introduced into the blood produces death ; 
one false assumption admitted into science, de- 
stroys its certainty ; one false principle admitted 
into morals, is fatal. Now our American nation 
is departing from the principles which created 
their civilization, and upon which their grand 
Republic is based. Their civilization is becoming 
every day more and more material, and this ma- 
terial civilization, while more and more material, 
is becoming less moral ; society is becoming less 
solid, less safe, less stable ; individuals are be- 
coming more anarchical, the intellect more licen- 
tious, the wills of men more stubborn, and this 
self-will expresses itself in their actions, so that 
it is true to say that, by means of godless educa- 

16 



242 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 

tion, the principles of Christianity upon which the 
American Republic was founded, and by which 
it has hitherto been preserved, have been rejected, 
and are being violated on every side. Our Re- 
public, therefore is no more progressing, but is 
going back. 

About fifteen years ago a number of leading 
politicians and statesmen of America, of highest 
name and note, met together to consider the con- 
dition of the United States. It was before the 
war, when there were already many causes of 
anxiety. It was said that there was a universal 
and growing license of the individual will, and 
that law and government were powerless to re- 
strain it ; that if the will of the multitude became 
licentious, it would seriously threaten the public 
welfare and liberty of the country. The conclu- 
sion they came to was, that, unless there could be 
found some poiuer v^hich could restrain the indi- 
vidual loill, this danger would at last seriously 
menace the United States. 

Now it is easy to say what that power is. It is 
the power which created the Christian society — 
it is the power which drew the world out of the 
darkness of heathenism, abolished slavery, re- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 243 

stored woman to her true dignity — it is the power 
which established and maintained republican gov- 
ernments, and that power is the power of Cath- 
olicity. Whensoever tliis power is weakened or 
lost, immediately all political society decays. 
There will be a bright future for America if this 
power will be maintained and preserveci. 

The Catholic Church is the grandest Kepublic 
that was ever established. But it is a Republic 
of a supernatural order. It has for its Founder 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself. He chose 
St. Peter for its first President. This grand Re- 
public is divided, as it were, into as many States 
as there are dioceses ; each diocese has a Bishop 
— a true successor of the Apostles — for Governor, 
and each Bishop has priests to assist him in 
the spiritual government of the diocese. The 
Constitution of this Republic was made by Jesus 
Christ. It cannot be changed or altered at all, 
either by the President, or by the votes of its 
citizens. St. Peter and the other Apostles, and 
their lawful successors, were bound in conscience, 
by Jesus Christ, to keep His Constitution — His 
doctrine — and teach others to keep it, under pain 
of forfeiture of eternal life. The President and 



244 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the Governors of this Republic — the Pope and the 
Catholic Bishops — are not at liberty to govern its 
citizens, the Catholics, as they please ; they have 
to govern them according to the Constitution — 
the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. Now Almighty 
God governs men in accordance with the nature 
with which He has created them, as beings en- 
dowed with reason and free-will. God adapts 
His government to our rational and voluntary 
faculties, and governs us without violence to 
either, and by reall}^ satisfying both. The rulers 
of the Catholic Church have to do the same ; they 
must govern men as freemen. Hence the Cath- 
olic Church leaves to every people its own nation- 
ality, and to every State its own independence ; 
she ameliorates the political and social order, only 
by infusing into the hearts of the people and their 
rulers the principles of justice and love, and a 
sense of accountability to God. The action of 
the Church in political and social matters is in- 
direct, not direct, and in strict accordance with 
the free-will of individuals and the autonomy of 
states. Servile fear does not rank very high 
among Catholic theologians. The Church, when 
she can, resorts to coercive measures only to re- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 245 

press disorders in the public body. Hence her 
rulers are called shepherds, not lords, and shep- 
herds of their Master's flock, not of their own, 
and are to feed, tend, protect the flock, and take 
care of its increase for Him, with sole reference 
to His will, and His honor and glory. The Catholic 
Church proflers to all every assistance necessary 
for the attainment of the most heroic sanctity, but 
she forces no man to accept that assistance. Cath- 
olics believe the doctrines of the Church, because 
they believe the Catholic Church the Church of 
God — they believe that Jesus Christ commis- 
sioned St. Peter and the Apostles, and their law- 
ful successors, to teach all men in His name — to 
teach them infallibly and authoritatively His divine 
doctrine — they believe that this Church is the 
medium through which God manifests His will and 
dispenses His grace to man,/ and through which 
alone we can hope for heaven ; they believe that 
nothino^ can be more reasonable than to believe 
God at His word, and that, above all, they must 
seek the kingdom of God and secure their eternal 
salvation. 

Being governed by the Church, as freemen, in 
the spirit of a republican government, and enjoj''- 



246 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ing, as they do, the freedom of the children of God, 
Catholics feel nowhere more at home than under 
a republican form of government. If a great pope 
could say in truth that he was nowhere more pope 
than in America, every Catholic can, and does, also, 
say in truth, " No whore can I be a better Christian 
than in the United States." Hence it is that 
Catholics are very generally attached to the re- 
publican institutions of the country — no class of 
our citizens more so — and w'ould defend them at 
the sacrifice of their lives. Catholics far more 
readily adjust themselves to our institutions than 
non-Catholics, and among Catholics it must be 
observed that they succeed best who best under- 
stand and best practise their religion. They who 
are least truly American, and yield most to dem- 
ao-oirues, are those who have very little of Cath- 
olicity, except the accident of being born of 
Catholic parents, who had them baptized in in- 
fancy. 

Practical Catholics are the best Republicans ! 
If we consult history, we find that they were 
always foremost in establishing and maintaining 
the republican form of government. Who orig- 
inated all the free principles which lie at the basis 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 247 

of our own noble Constitution? Who gave us 
trial by jur}', habeas corpus, stationary courts, and 
the principle — for which we fought and conquered 
in our revolutionary struggle against Protestant 
England — that taxes are not to be levied with- 
out the free consent of those who pay them? All 
tliese cardinal elements of free government date 
back to the good old Catholic times, in the middle 
ages — some three hundred years before the dawn 
of the Reformation ! Our Catholic forefathers 
gave them all to us. 

Again, we are indebted to Catholics for all the 
republics which ever existed in Christian times, 
down to the year 1776 : for those of Switzerland, 
Venice, Genoa, Andorra, San Marino, and a host 
of minor free Commonwealths, which sprang up 
in the "dark ages." Some of these republics still 
exist, proud monuments and unanswerable evi- 
dences of Catholic devotion to freedom. They 
are acknow^ledged b}^ Protestants, no less than by 
Catholics. I subjoin the testimony of an able 
writer in the New York Tribune, believed to be 
Bayard Taylor. This distinguished traveller — a 
staunch Protestant — appeals to history, and 
speaks from personal observation. He writes : 



248 PUBLIC SCIIOOI- EDUCATION. 

"Truth compels US to add that the oldest re- 
public now existing is that of Sau Marino, not 
only Catholic, but wholly surrounded by the 
especial dominion of the popes, who might have 
crushed it like an egg-shell at any time these last 
thousand years — but they didn't. The only re- 
public we ever travelled in besides ,our own is 
Switzerland, half of its cantons or states entirely 
Catholic, yet never, that we have heard of, unfaith- 
ful to the cause of freedom. We never heard the 
Catholics of Hungary accused of backwardness in 
the late glorious struggle of their country for 
freedom, though its leaders were Protestants, 
fighting against a leading Catholic power avow- 
edly in favor of religious as well as civil liberty. 
And chivalric, unhappy Poland, almost wholly 
Catholic, has made as gallant struirgles for free- 
clom as any other nation ; while of the three des- 
potisms that crushed her, but one was Catholic." 

Let us bring the subject home to our own times 
and country. Who, I would ask, first reared in 
triumph the broad banner of universal freedom on 
this North American Continent? Who first pro- 
claimed in this new world a truth too wide and 
expansive to enter into the head of, or to be com- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOJf. 249 

prebendecl by, a narrow-minded bigot — a truth 
that every man should be free to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of his conscience ? Who 
^rs^ proclaimed, on this broad continent, the glorious 
principles of universal freedom? Read Bancroft, 
read Goodrich, read Frost, read every Protestant 
historian of our country, and you will see there in- 
scribed, on the historic page, a fact which reflects 
immortal honor on our American Catholic ancestry 
— that Lord Baltimore and his Catholic colonists of 
Maryland were the first to proclaim universal lib- 
erty, civil and religious ; Wio, first to announce, as the 
basis of their legislation, the great and noble prin- 
ciple that no man's faith and conscience should be 
a bar to his holding any office, or enjoying any 
civil jprivilege of the community. 

What American can forget the names of Ro- 
chambeau, De Grasse, De Kalb, Pulaski, La 
Tayette, Kosciusko? Without the aid of these 
noble Catholic heroes, and of the brave troops 
whom they led on to victory, would we have suc- 
ceeded at all in our great revolutionary contest? 
Men of the clearest heads, and of the greatest po- 
litical forecast, living at that time, thought not ; at 



250 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

least the}'^ deemed the result exceedingly doubt- 
ful. 

And during the whole war of the Revolution, 
who ever heard of a Catholic coward, or of a 
Catholic traitor? When the Protestaut General, 
Gates, fled from the battle-field of Camden with 
the Protestant militia of North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, who but Catholics stood firm at their posts, 
and fou2:ht and died with the brave old Catholic 
hero, De Kalb? the veteran who, when others 
ingloriously fled, seized his good sword, and 
cried out to the brave old Maryland and Pennsyl- 
vania lines, " Stand firm, for 1 am too old to fly ! " 
Who ever heard of a Catholic Arnold? And who 
has not heard of the brave Irish and German sol- 
diers who, at a somewhat later period, mainly 
composed the invincible army of the impetuous 
"Mad Anthony" Wayne, and constituted the 
great bulwark of our defence against the savage 
invasions which threatened our whole north- 
western frontier with devastation and ruin ? 

All these facts, and many more of a similar 
kind which might be alleged, canuot have passed 
away, as yet, from the memory of our American 
citizens. Americans canuot have forgotten, as 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 251 

yet, that the man who perilled most in signfng the 
Declaration of Independence was a Eomau Cath- 
olic, and that when Charles Carroll, of Carroltou, 
put his name to that instrument, Benjamin Frank- 
lin observed, "There goes a cool million in sup- 
port of the cause ! " 

And when our energies were exhausted, and 
the stoutest hearts entertained the most gloomy 
forebodings as to the final issue, Catholic France 
stepped gallantly forth to the rescue of our in- 
fant freedom, almost crushed by an overwhelm- 
ing English tyranny ! Catholic Spain also 
snbsequently lent us her aid against England. 
Many of our most sagacious statesmen have be- 
lieved that, but for this timely aid, our Declara- 
tion of Independence could scarcely have been 
made good. 

These facts, which are but a few of those 
which might be adduced, prove conclusively that 
Catholicity is still what she was in the middle 
ages — the steadfast friend and support of free 
institutions. 

The great roots of all the evils that press upon 
society, and make man unhappy, are — 



252 public school education. 

"the* ignorance of the mind, and the de- 
pravity OF THE WILL." 

Hence he who wishes to civilize the world, and 
thus assist in executing the plans of God's prov- 
idence, must remove these two great roots of evil 
by imparting to the mind infallibly the light of 
truth, and by laying down for the will authorita- 
tively the unchangeable principles of morality. 
It is the Catholic Church that has accomplished in 
society this twofold task, by means of education. 
In the Pagan world, education was an edifice 
built up on the principles of slavery. The motto 
was, "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo." Education 
was the privilege of the aristocracy. The great 
mass of people was studiously kept in ignorance 
of the treasures of the mind. This state of 
things was done away with by the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, when she established the monastic 
institutions of the West. The whole of Europe 
was soon covered with schools, not only for the 
wealthy, but for the poorest even of the poor. 
Yes, education was systematized, and an emula- 
tion was created for learning, such as the world 
had never seen before. Italy, German}'', France, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 253 

England, and Spain, had their universities ; but 
side by side with these, their colleges, gymnasi- 
ums, parish and village schools, as numerous as 
the churches and monasteries, which the efforts 
of the Holy See had scattered with lavish hand 
over the length and breadth of the land. 

And where was the source of all this light? I 
answer, at Rome. For when the barbarian hordes 
poured down upon Europe from the Caspian 
Mountains, it was the Popes who saved civiliza- 
tion. They collected, in the Vatican, the man- 
uscripts of the ancient authors, gathered from all 
parts of the earth at enormous expense. The bar- 
barians, who destroyed everything by fire and 
sword, had already advanced as far as Rome. 
Attila, who called himself the scourge of God, 
stood before its walls ; there was no emperor, no 
pretorian guard, no legions present to save the an- 
cient Capital of the world. But there was a Pope 
— Leo I. And Leo went forth, and by entreat- 
ies, and threats of God's displeasure, induced the 
dreaded king of the Huns to retire. Scarcely 
had Attila retired, before Genseric, king of the 
Vandals, made his appearance, invited by Eu- 
doxia, the empress, to the plunder of Rome. 



254 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Leo met him, and obtained from hira the lives 
and the honor of the Romans, and the sparing 
of the public monuments which adorned the city 
in such numbers. Thus Leo the Great saved 
Europe from barbarism. To the name of Leo, I 
might add those of Gregory I., Sylvester II., 
Gregory XIII. , Benedict XIV., Julius III., Paul 
III., Leo X., Clement VIII., John XX., and a 
host of others, who must be looked upon as the 
preservers of science and the arts, even amid the 
very fearful torrent of barbarism that was spread- 
ing itself, like an inundation, over the whole of 
Europe. The principle of the Catholic Church 
has ever been this : " By the knowledge of Divine 
things, and the guidance of an infallible teacher, 
the human mind must gain certainty in regard to 
the sublimest problems, the great questions of 
life : by them the origin, the end, the norm and 
limit of man's activity must be made known, for 
then alone can he venture fearlessly upon the 
sphere of human efforts, and human develop- 
ments, and human science." And, truly, never 
has science gained the ascendancy outside of the 
Church that it has always held in the Church. 
And what I say of science I say also of the arts. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 255 

I say it of architecture, of sculpture, and of paint- 
ing. I need only point to the Basilica of Peter, 
to the museums and libraries of Rome. It is to 
Rome the youthful artist always turns his steps, in 
order to drink in, at the monuments of art and of 
science, the genius and inspiration he seeks for in 
vain in his own country. He feels, only too 
keenly, that railroads and telegraphs, steamships 
and power-looms, banking-houses and stock com- 
panies, though good and useful institutions, are 
not the mothers of genius, nor the schools of in- 
spiration ; and therefore he leaves his country, 
and goes to Rome, and there feasts on the fruits' 
gathered by the hands of St. Peter's successors, 
and then returns home with a name which will 
live for ages in the memory of those who have 
learned to appreciate the true and the beautiful. 

It is thus that the Catholic Church has accom- 
plished the great work of enlightening society. 
She has shed the light of Faith over the East and 
the West, over the North and the South, and with 
the faith she has established the principles of true 
science on their natural bases. She has imparted 
education to the masses, wherever she was left 
free to adopt her own, and untrammelled by civil 



25B PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

interference. She has fostered and protected the 
arts and the sciences, and to-day, if all the libra- 
ries, and all the museums, and all the galleries 
of art in the world were destroyed, Rome alone 
would possess quite enough to supply the want.) 
as it did in former ages, when others supplied 
themselves by plundering Rome. 

The depravity of man shows itself in the con- 
stant endeavor to shake off the restraint placed by 
law and duty upon his will ; and to this we must 
ascribe the licentiousness which has at all times 
afflicted society. Passion acknowledges no law, 
and spares neither rights nor conventions; where 
it has the power, it exercises it to the advantage 
of self, and to the detriment of social order. The 
Church is by its very constitution Catholic, and 
hence looks upon all men as brothers of the same 
family. She acknowledges not the natural right of 
one man over another, and hence her Catholicity 
lays a heavy restraint upon all the efforts of self- 
love, and curbs with a mighty hand the temerity of 
those who would destroy the harmony of life im- 
plied in the idea of Catholicity. 

One of the first principles of all social happi- 
ness is, that before the law of nature, and before 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 257 

the face of God, all men are equal. This prin- 
ciple is based on the unity of the human race, the 
origin of all men from one common father. If 
we study the History of Paganism, we find that 
all heathen nations overturned this great princi- 
ple, since we find among all heathen nations the 
evil of Slavery. Prior to the coming of Christ, 
the great majority of men were looked upon as a 
higher development of the animal, as animated 
instruments which might be bought and sold, 
given away and pawned ; which might be tor- 
mented, maltreated, or murdered; as beings, in a 
word, for whom the idea of right, duty, pity, 
mercy, and law had no existence. Who can read, 
without a feeling of intense horror, the accounts 
left us of the treatment of their slaves by the Ro- 
mans? There was no law that could restrain in 
the least the wantonness, the cruelty, the licen- 
tious excess of the master, who, as master, pos- 
sessed the absolute right to do with his slaves 
whatsoever he pleased. To remove this stain of 
slavery has ever been the aim of the Catholic 
Church. " Since the Saviour and Creator of the 
world," says Pope Gregory I., in his celebrated 
decree, "wished to become man, in order, by 

17 



258 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

grace and liberty, to break the chains of our 
slavery, it is right and good to bestow again upon 
man, whom nature has permitted to be born free, 
but whom the law of nations has brought under 
the yoke of slavery, the blessing of their original 
liberty." Through all the middle ages — called 
by Protestants the dark ages of the world -r- the 
echo of these words of Gregory I. is heard ; and 
in the thirteenth century Pope Pius II. could say, 
" Thanks to God, and the Apostolic See, the yoke 
of slavery does no longer disgrace any European 
nation." Since then slavery was again intro- 
duced into Africa, and the newly-discovered re- 
gions of America, and again the Popes raised 
their voices in- the interests of liberty, — from 
Pius II. to Pius VII., who, even at the time Na- 
poleon had robbed him of his liberty, and held 
him captive in a foreign land, became the defen- 
der of the negro, to Gregory XVI., who, on the 
third of November, 1839, insisted in a special 
Bull on the abolition of the slave trade, and who 
spoke in a strain as if he had lived and sat side by 
side with Gregory I., thirteen hundred years be- 
fore. But here let us observe, that not only the 
vindication of liberty for all, not only the aboli- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 259 

tion of slavery, but the very mode of action fol- 
lowed in this matter by the Popes, has gained for 
them immortal honor, and the esteem of all good 
men. When the Church abolished slavery in any 
country where it existed, the Popes did not com- 
pel masters, by harshness or threats, to manumit 
their slaves ; they did not bring into action the 
base intrigues, the low chicanery, the canting 
hypocrisy of modern statesmen ; they did not 
raise armies, and send them into the lands of 
their masters to burn and to pillage, to lay waste 
and to destroy ; they did not slaughter, by their 
schemes, over a million of free men and another 
million of slaves ; they did not make widows and 
orphans without numbers ; they did not impover- 
ish the land, and lay upon their subjects burdens 
which would crush them into very dust. Noth- 
ing of all this. That is not the way in which the 
Church abolished slavery. The Popes sent bish- 
ops and priests into those countries where slavery 
existed, to enlighten the minds of the masters, 
and convince them that slaves were men, and con- 
sequently had souls, like other people, too. The 
Popes, bishops and priests infused into the hearts 
of masters a deep love for Jesus Christ, and con- 



260 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

sequently ii deep love for souls. The Popes, 
bishops and priests taught masters to look upon 
their slaves as created by the same God, redeemed 
by the same Jesus Christ, destined for the same 
glory. The consequence was, that the relations 
of slave and master became the relations of 
brother to brother ; the master began to love his 
slave, and to ameliorate his condition, till at last, 
forced by his own acknowledged principles, he 
granted to him his liberty. Thus it was that 
slavery was abolished by the preaching of the 
Popes, bishops and priests. The great barrier to 
all the healthy, permanent, and free development 
of nations was thus broken down ; the blessings, 
the privileges of society, were made equally at- 
tainable by the masses, and ceased to be the spe- 
cial monopoly of a few, who, for the most part, 
had nothing to recommend them except their 
wealth. 

If any doubt remain as to the favorable influ- 
ence of Catholicity on civil liberty, it would be 
dispelled by the express teaching of the theolo- 
gians, writing in accordance with the principles 
and the spirit of the Church. Not to extend this 
point too much, I will confine myself to the au- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIO?^. 261 

thority of the great St. Thomas Aqumas, who, as 
a theologian, has perhaps had greater weight in 
the Catholic Church than any other man. His 
testimony may also show us Avhat were the gen- 
eral sentiments of the school-men in the thirteenth 
century, when he wrote. 

Speaking of the origin of civil power and the 
objects of law, he lays down these principles : 
" The law, strictly speaking, is directed primarily 
and principally to the common good ; and to 
decree anything for the common benefit belongs 
either to the whole body of the people, or to some 
one acting in their place." (Sum ma Theologise, 
i. 2, I. Qusest. Art. iii., Resp.) He pronounces, 
the following opinion as to the best form of gov- 
ernment : " Wherefore the choice of rulers in any 
state or kingdom is best, when one is chosen for 
his merit to preside over all, and under him are 
other rulers chosen for their merit; and the govern- 
ment belongs to all, because the rulers unay be chosen 
from any class of society ; and the choice is made 
by all.^^ (Ibid, Qusest. cv. Art. 1.) One would 
think that he is hearing a Democrat of the modern 
stamp, and yet it is a monk of the dark ages I 



262 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Many other testimonies of similar import might 
be cited, l^nt these Avill suffice. 

And what has Protestantism done for human 
freedom? The Reformation dawned on the world 
in the 3^ear 1517. What did it do for the cause 
of freedom from that date down to 1776 — when 
our Republic arose? Did it strike one blow for 
liberty during these two centuries and a half? 
Did it originate one republican principle, or found 
one solitary republic? Xot one. In Germany, 
where it had full sway, it ruthlessly trampled in 
the. dust all the noble franchises of the Catholic 
middle ages ; it established political despotism 
everywhere ; it united church and state ; in a 
word, it brought about that very state of things 
which continues to exist, with but slight amelior- 
ation, even down to the present day. In England, 
it did the same ; it broke down the bulwarks of 
the British Constitution, derived from the Catholic 
Magna Charta ; it set at naught popular rights, 
and gave to the king or queen unlimited power in 
church and state ; and it required a bloody strug- 
gle and a revolution, one hundred and fifty years 
afterwards, to restore to something of their former 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 268 

integrity the old chartered rights of the British 
people. 

Protestantism has always boasted much, but it 
has really done little for the cause of human free- 
dom. As to the liberties which we enjoy in our 
country, we cheerfully award to our Protestant 
fellow-citizens the praise which is so justly due 
them for their share in the glorious struggle. 

But as to the power of Protestantism to main- 
tain the Eepublic by checking the great evils that 
have already sapped its foundations, it has not any 
at all. How could Protestantism check infidelity, 
since it leads to it? There are two causes of in- 
fidelity that have existed from the beginning of 
the world. But about three centuries as^o Prot- 
estantism opened a very wide avenue to infidelity. 
Protestantism introduced the principle, "There is 
no divinely-commissioned authority to teach infal- 
libly." Now infidelity exists in this principle of 
Protestantism, as the oak exists ia the acorn, as 
the consequence is in the premise. On the claim 
of private judgment, Protestants reject the au- 
thority of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ. The 
Calvinists, going, as they do, by the same prin- 



2G4 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ciple, reject the Real Presence of our Lord in the 
Blessed Sacrament. 

The Sociniaus, following the same principle, 
reject, to-day, the Divinity of Christ, and there- 
fore abjure Christianity, and fall back into utter 
incredulity. 

The German and French philosophers, ration- 
alists, and pantheists, of all degrees, do not even 
stop at that ; they go farther, and deny the exist- 
ence of a God Creator, and all by the privilege 
of free and private judgment. 

The individual reason taking, as it does, the 
place of faith, the Protestant, whether he believes 
it or not, is an infidel in germ, and the infidel is a 
Protestant in full bloom ; in other words, infidelity 
is nothing but Protestantism in the highest degree. 
Hence it is that Edgar Quinet, a great herald of 
Protestantism, is riglit in styling the Protestant 
sects the thousand gates open to get out of Chris- 
tianity. No wonder, then, that thousands of 
Protestants have ended, and continue to end, in 
framino; their formula of faith thus : " I believe in 
nothing." 

But let us bring this subject home to our coun- 
try. The disastrous issue of the revolutionary 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 265 

movements which convulsed all Europe in 1848-9, 
has thrown upon our shores masses of foreign 
political refugees, most of whom are infidels in 
religion, and red republicans, or destructionists 
of all social order in politics. They are men of 
desperate character and fortune — outlaws from 
society, with the brand of infidelity upon their 
brow. It is by this fast-increasing class of men 
that " Young America " is attracted, and learn from 
them their anarchical principles. The greatest, 
and, in fact, the only real danger to the permanency 
of our republican institutions, is to be apprehended 
from this class of infidels in our community. 

Now what has contributed most towards the 
enormous increase of these enemies of our re- 
public? It is the godless education given in the 
Public Schools. And who established these 
schools, and who robbed the money from the 
people to support them — to make this source of 
infidelity flow so abundantly all over the land ? 
You find the answer to this question in Chapter 
III. 

Protestantism was a separation from the source 
and current of the Divine-human life which ex- 
ists in the Catholic Church, and which redeems 



266 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

and saves the world ; and Protestants are there- 
fore thrown back upon nature, and able* to live 
only the natural life of the race — saving the 
portion of Christian life they brought away with 
them at the time of separation, and which, as not 
renewed from its source, must, in time, be ex- 
hausted. 

It is therefore evident that Protestantism can- 
not fight infidelity. It is only the Catholic Church 
that can take open ground against these men so 
hostile to our country, and she feels honored by 
their bitter hostility. It could not be otherwise. 
Her principles are eminently conservative in all 
questions of religion and of civil policy ; theirs 
are radical and destructive in both. Theirs is the 
old war of Satan against Christ ; of the sons of 
Belial against the keepers of the law ; of false 
and anti-social against true and rational liberty — 
"the liberty of the glory of the children of God." 

Let these enemies of the country unfold their 
banners of "Infidelity," "Socialism," "Free 
Thought," " Scepticism," " Communism," " No 
God," "No Christ," "No Pope," "No Church," 
and a thousand others ; let them grind their 
teeth, let them froth and foam at the mouth, let 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 267 

them tremble with rage, let them shake their heads 
with an air of majesty, as if they would say to the 
Church, "We bury you to-morrow, we write your 
epitaph and chant your DeProfundis ; our league is 
mighty, our forces are multitudinous, our weapons 
are powerful, our bravery is desperate." 

The Catholic Church calmly answers, " I know 
you hate me because I am the palladium of truth 
and of public and private morality ; I am the 
root and bond of charity and faith ; I love justice 
and hate iniquity. But it is for this very reason 
that I will remain forever; for truth and justice 
being, in the end, always victorious, I will not 
cease to bless and to triumph. All the works of 
the earth have perished ; time has obliterated 
them. But I remain, because Christ remains, 
and I will endure until I pass from my earthly 
exile to my country in heaven. 

" Human theories and systems have flitted across 
my path like birds of night, but they have van- 
ished ; numberless sects have, like so many waves, 
dashed themselves to froth against me, this rock, 
or, recoiling, have been lost in the vast ocean of 
forgetfulness. Kingdoms and empires that once 
existed in inimitable worldly grandeur are no 



268 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

more ; dynasties have died out, and have been re- 
placed by others. 

" Thrones and sceptres and crowns have with- 
stood me ; but, immutable, like God, who laid my 
foundation, I am the firm, unshaken centre round 
which the weal and woe of nations move — weal 
if they adhere to it — woe if they separate from 
it. If the world takes from me the cross of 
gold, I will bless the world with one of wood. 

"Tear down my Banner of the Cross if you can I 
Touch a single fold of it if you dare ! Sound 
your battle-cry ; rally your hosts — marshal your 
ranks ! Storm these lofty summits. They never 
yet have been surrendered. The flag that waves 
above them has never trailed in defeat, and the 
hearts that guard that flag have never flinched 
before the foe, and the bravery that shoots 
through every film of these hearts has never fal- 
tered. On with the conflict ! Let it rage ! Our 
line of battle reaches back to Cavalry. That line 
has never been broken by wildest onset ! These 
soldiers have never fled ! We are the sons of 
veterans who have marched through a campaign 
of eighteen hundred j-ears — marched and never 
halted — marched and always triumphed ! We 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 2G9 

belong to the old Imperial Guard of Faith ! We 
never yet have met a Waterloo ! 

"I am a queen — but a warrior-queen. You will 
never find me on a throne here below. Banner 
in hand, I am ever in the midst of battle. I have 
never granted a day of truce to my enemies. 
"War against all who war against God — war 
ao-ainst all who war as^ainst Christ — war against 
all who war against man — war against all who 
war against truth — this is my destiny. 

"Peace here below, I have never known. Rest 
here below, I have never found. I am always on 
the march — my banner ever unfurled — my war- 
cry ever sounding ! 

"Therefore, in the storm and shock of my bat- 
tle of to-day with my enemies, my soldier-chil- 
dren fear not. Around my old chieftain they 
rally. What though some may desert and leave 
the lines? The lines close up again — and the 
deserters are not missed. What though a Judas 
Iscariot may betray ? A brave Matthias takes his 
place. W^hat though a few of craven spirit may 
flee ? The ranks they left are filled by brave men 
and true. 

"From the hill of Calvary to the hill of the 



270 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Vatican, from Peter before the Council to Pius 
before the Sardinian, my history lias been one 
long, uninterrupted battle — and my battle one 
long and glorious victory." 

We cannot but smile when we hear infidels talk 
of the downfall of the Church. What could hell 
and its agents do more than they have already 
done for her destruction? They have employed 
tortures for the body, but they could not reach 
the spirit ; they have tried heresy, or the denial 
of revealed truth, to such an extent that we can- 
not see room for any new heres^^ ; they have, by 
the hand of schism, torn whole countries from the 
unity of the Church ; but what she lost on one 
side of the globe, she gained tenfold on the other. 
All these have iguominiously failed to verify the 
prophecies of hell, that "the Church shall fall." 

Look, for instance, at the tremendous effort of 
the so-called glorious Reformation, together with 
its twin sister — the unbelief of the nineteenth 
century. Whole legions of church reformers, 
together with armies of philosophers armed with 
negation, and a thousand and one systems of 
Pao-anism, rushed on against the Chair of Peter, 
and swore that the Papacy would fall, and with it 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 271 

the whole Church. Three hundred years are 
over, and the Catholic Church is still alive, and, 
to all appearances, more vigorous than ever. 
The nations have proved that they can get along 
very well without reformers, but not without 
the Catholic Church. Men are foolish enough to 
dream of the destruction of the Papacy. Napo- 
leon tried the game, and, from the summit of his 
empire, walked into exile, whilst his victim, Pius 
VII., leaving his prison, entered Eome in tri- 
umph. A great statesman of France said, not 
long ago, that those who tried to swallow the 
Papacy, and with it the whole Church, always 
died of indigestion. Let the enemies of the 
Catholic Church beware I If they dash their 
heads against this rock, they must not be aston- 
ished to find them broken. 

And what power has Protestantism to check 
the National Crime — the murder of helpless in- 
nocents? Everybody knows, who knows any- 
thing about the subject, that among the Roman 
Catholic population this crime is hardly known. 
The reason for the rare occurrence of this crime 
among Catholics, is their religion. The doctrine 
of the Catholic Church, her canons, her pontifical 



272 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

constitutions, her theologians, without exception, 
teach, and always have taught, that even the in- 
tention of preventing or destroying human life, 
at any period from the first instant of conception, 
is a heinous crime, equal at least in guilt to the 
crime of murder. 

Now as to the power of Protestantism to check 
this crime, Dr. Storcr, the distinguished Prot- 
estant physician of Boston, says : " We are com- 
pelled to admit that Protestantism has failed to 
check the increase of criminal abortion." (Crim- 
inal Abortion, p. 55.) "There can be no doubt 
that the Romish ordinance, flanked, on the one 
hand, by the confessional, and by denouncement 
and excommunications on the other, has saved to 
the world thousands of infant lives.'' (Ibid. p. 74.) 
"During the ten years which have passed since 
the preceding sentence was written, we have had 
ample verification of its truth. Several hundreds 
of Protestant women have personally acknowl- 
edged to us their guilt, against whom only seven 
Catholics, and of these we found, upon further 
inquiry, that all but two were only nominally so, 
not going to the confession." — (Ibid.) 

It is, then, not Protestantism, it is the Catholic 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 273 

Church alone that has the power to oppose her- 
self to the propagation of so heinous a crime, 
and prevent her children from shedding the blood 
of helpless innocents. 

The third great evil which has made the most 
fearful inroad among us, so as already to have ex- 
torted many a warning cry, is the contempt of the 
marriage tie. 

The family, as I have said in a previous chap- 
ter, is the groundwork of civil society. If the 
family be Christian, the State will also be Chris- 
tian; and if the family be corrupt, the State 
cannot remain long untarnished. It is the holy 
sacrament of marriage that gives sanctity to the 
family, and strength to civil society. To reject 
that sacrament is to sow the seeds of revolution. 
Revolution in the family begets revolution in the 
State. When a government, which, by its very 
nature, should restrain immorality, allows the sep- 
aration of man and wife, it sanctions the risrht of 
revolution in the family, and sooner or later that 
government will feel the dire effects of its own 
corrupt doctrine. Now it is a matter of fact that 
the contempt of the marriage tie, so prevalent 
in our country, is owing to Protestantism, If 

18 



274 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

any one wishes to learn how the Continental Re- 
formers regarded the Sacrament of Matrimony, 
let him read Luther's sermon on Marriage (if he 
can do so without a blush), or, better still, the 
dogmatical judgment of Luther, Melanchthon, 
Bucer, and the rest, giving permission ! to the 
innocent Landgrave of Hesse to commit bigamy, 
pure and simple. 

It is the Catholic Church alone, again, that has 
always regarded the Christian marriage as the 
corner-stone of society ; and at that corner-stone 
have the Popes stood guard for eighteen centuries, 
by insisting that Christian marriage is one, holy, 
and indissoluble. Woman, weak and unpro- 
tected, has, as the history of the Church abun- 
dantly proves, found • at Rome that guaranty 
which was refused her by him who had sworn at 
the altar of God to love her and to cherish her 
till death. Whilst, in the nations whom the 
Reformation of the sixteenth century tore from 
the bosom of the Church, the sacred laws of 
matrimony are trampled in the dust, whilst the 
statistics of these nations hold up to the world 
the sad spectacle of divorces as numerous as 
marriages, of separations of husband from wife, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 275 

and wife from husband, for the most trivial causes, 
thus granting to lust the widest margin of license, 
and legalizing concubinage and adultery ; whilst 
the nineteenth century records in its annals the 
existence of a community of licentious polyg- 
amists within the borders of one of the most civ- 
ilized countries of the earth, we must yet see the 
decree emanating from Rome that would permit 
even a beggar to repudiate his lawful wife, in or- 
der to give his affections to an adulteress. 

The female portion of our race would always 
have sunk back into a new slavery, had not the 
Popes entered the breach for the protection of 
the Unity, the sanctity, the Indissolubility of mat- 
rimony. In the midst of the barbarous ages, 
during which the conqueror and warrior swayed 
the sceptre of empire, and kings and petty 
tyrants acknowledged no other right but that of 
force, it was the Popes that opposed their author- 
ity, like a wall of brass, to the sensuality and the 
passijoas of the mighty ones of the earth, and 
stood forth as the protectors of innocence and 
outraged virtue, as the champions of the rights 
of women, against the wanton excesses of tyran- 
nical husbands, by enforcing, in their full severity, 



276 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION". 

the laws of Christian marriao;e. If Christian 
Europe is not covered with harems, if polygamy 
has never gained a foothold in Europe, if, with 
the indissolubility and sanctity of matrimony, the 
palladium of European civilization has been saved 
from destruction, it is all owing to the Popes. 
"If the Popes" — says the Protestant Von Miil- 
ler — " if the Popes could hold up no other merit 
than that which they gained by protecting 
monogamy against the brutal lusts of those in 
power, notwithstanding bribes, threats, and per- 
secutions, that alone would render them immortal 
for all future ages." 

And how had they to battle till they had gained 
this merit? What sufferings had they to endure, 
what trials to undergo ? When King Lothair, in 
the ninth century, repudiated his lawful wife in 
order to live with a concubine. Pope Nicholas I. 
at once took upon himself the defence of the 
rights and of the honor of the unhappy wife. 
All the arts of an intriguing policy were plied, 
but Nicholas remained unshaken ; threats were 
used, but Nicholas remained firm. At last the 
king's brother, Louis II., appears with an army 
before the walls of Rome, in order to compel the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 277 

Pope to yield. It is useless — Nicholas swerves 
not from the line of duty. Rome is besieged; 
the priests and people are maltreated and plun- 
dered ; sanctuaries are desecrated ; the cross is 
torn down and trampled under foot, and, in the 
midst of these scenes of blood and sacrilege, 
Nicholas flies to the Church of St. Peter ; there 
he is besieged by the army of the Emperor for 
two days and two nights ; left without food or 
drink, he is willing to die of starvation on the 
tomb of St. Peter, rather than yield to a brutal 
tyrant, and sacrifice the sanctity of Christian 
marriage, the law of life of Christian society. 
And the perseverance of Nicholas I. was crowned 
with victory. He had to contend against a licen- 
tious king, who was tired of restraint ; against an 
emperor, who, with an army at his heels, came to 
enforce his brother's unjust demands ; against 
two councils of venal bishops, the one at Metz, 
the other at Aix-la-Chapelle, who had sanctioned 
the scandals of the adulterous monarch. Yet, 
with all this opposition, and the suffering it cost 
him, the Pope succeeded in procuring the ac- 
knowledgment of the rights of an injured woman. 
And during succeeding ages we find Gregory V. 



278 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOl^. 

carrying on a, similar combat against King Robert, 
and Urban II. against King Philip of France. 
In the thirteenth century, Philip Augustus, 
mightier than his predecessors, set to work all 
the levers of power, in order to move the Pope 
to divorce him from his wife Ingelburgis. Hear 
the noble answer of the ofreat Innocent III. : 

" Since, by the grace of God, we have the firm 
and unshaken will never to separate ourselves 
from Justice and Truth, neither moved by peti- 
tions, nor bribed by presents, neither induced by 
love, nor intimidated by hate, we will continue to 
go on in the royal path, turning neither to the 
right nor to the left ; and we judge without any 
respect to persons, since God Himself does not 
respect persons." 

After the death of his first wife, Isabella, Philip 
Augustus wished to gain the favor of Denmark by 
marr3nng Ingelburgis. The union had hardly 
been solemnized, when he wished to be divorced 
from her. A council of venal bishops assembled 
at Compiegne, and annulled his lawful marriage. 
The queen, poor woman, was summoned before 
her Judges, and the sentence was read and trans- 
lated to her. She could not speak the language 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 279 

of France, so her only cry was "Rome ! " And. 
Eome heard her cry of distress, and came to her 
rescue. Innocent III. needed the alliance of 
France in the troubles in which he was eno-aojed 
with Germany ; Innocent III. needed the assist- 
ance of France for the Crusade ; yet Innocent 
III. sent Peter of Capua as Legate to France ; a 
Council is convoked by the Legate of the Pope ; 
Philip refuses to appear, in spite of the summons, 
and the whole of the kingdom of Philip is placed 
under interdict. Philip's rage knows no bounds : 
bishops are banished, his lawful wife is impris- 
oned, and the king vents his rage on the clergy of 
France. The barons, at last, appeal against Philip 
to the sword. The king complains to the Pope of 
the harshness of the Legate, and when Innocent 
only confirms the sentence of the Legate, the 
king exclaims, "Happy Saladin ; he had no 
Pope ! " Yet the king was forced to obey. When 
he asked the barons assembled in council, " What 
must I do? " their answer was : " Obey the Pope ; 
put awa}'- Agnes and restore Ingelburgis." And, 
thanks to the severity of Innocent III., Philip re- 
pudiated the concubine, and restored Ingelburgis 
to her rights, as wife and queen. Hear what the 



280 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Protestant Hiirter says, in his life of Innocent: 
" If Christianity has not been thrown aside, as a 
worthless creed, into some isolated corner of the 
world ; if it has not, like the sects of India, been 
reduced to a mere theory ; if its European vitality 
has outlived the voluptuous effeminacy of the 
East, it is due to the watchful severity of the Ro- 
man Pontiffs — to their increasing care to maintain 
the principles of authority in the Church." 

As often as we look to England, that land of 
perfidy and deceit, we are reminded of the words 
of Innocent III. to Philip Augustus. We see 
Clement using them as his principles in his con- 
duct towards the royal brute Henry VIII. Cath- 
erine of Aragon, the lawful wife of Henry, had 
been repudiated by her disgraceful husband, and 
it was again to Rome she appealed for protection. 
Clement remonstrates with Henry. The monarch 
calls the Pope hard names. Clement repeats, 
" Thou shalt not commit adultery ! " Heury 
threatens to tear England from the Church ; he 
does it; still Clement insists, ''Thou shalt not 
commit adultery ! " Fisher and More go to bleed 
out their life at Tyburn ; still the Pope repeats, 
" Thou shalt not commit adultery ! " Henry had 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 281 

two wives at the same time, and, after them, took 
a new wife, and killed off his old wife, whenever 
his beastly passion prompted. The enslavement 
of the people followed. Henry made himself 
head of the Church, and bade the English nation 
recognize him as such. The penalty of disobey- 
ing the tyrant was death. The mass of the Eng- 
lish yielded. This adulterous beast — this fero- 
cious monster — they accepted as their pope ; and 
their children, following in their steps, accepted 
his bastard brood — of either sex — as their 
popes ; w^hile the only and true Pope, the succes- 
sor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, was 
rejected by them. To such depths of servility 
and degradation do apostate nations fall. The 
firmness of the Pope cost England's loss to the 
Church. It cost the Pope bitter tears, and he 
prayed to Heaven not to visit on the people of 
England the crimes of the despot ; he prayed for 
the conversion of the nation ; but sacrifice the 
sanctity, the indissolubility of matrimony, that he 
could never do — abandon helpless women to the 
brutality of men who were tired of the restraints 
of morality — no, that the Pope could never per- 
mit. If the Court, if the palace of the domestic 



282 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

hearth refused a shelter, Eome was always open, 
a refuge to injured and down-trodden innocence. 

" One must obey God more than man." This 
has ever been the language of the Popes, 
whenever there was question of defending the 
laws of God against the powers of the earth ; 
and in thus defending the laws of God, they 
protected against outrage the personal dignity, 
the moral liberty and the intellectual freedom 
of man. "Because there was a Pope," says a 
Protestant historian, "there could not any longer 
be a Tiberius in Europe, and the direction 
of the religious and spiritual welfare of man was 
withdrawn from the hands of royalty." Because 
there were Popes, the will of CsBsar could not any 
longer be substituted for law ; for the Popes made 
the Gospel the law-book of the nations. Now 
the Gospel teaches that all power comes from 
God ; that from God the sovereign derives his 
power, to rule in justice and equity for the wel- 
fare of his subjects, and that the subjects are 
bound to obey their rules, for conscience sake. 
Hence, adopting the great principal of action, the 
Popes have at all times condemned the spirit of 
rebellion, and have anathematized those prinei- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 283 

pies, those factions, those orgauizatious whose aim 
is, and has always been, to overturn lawful au- 
thority and to substitute anarchy in the place of 
the harmony of legitimate government. In con- 
formity with this rule of action the Popes Clem- 
ent XII., Benedict XIY., Pius YII., Leo XII., 
Gregory XVI., and Pius IX. have condemned 
secret societies, whose object is the overthrow of 
civil and religious government. But at the same 
time that the Popes required from subjects obedi- 
ence to their lawful governments, they have ever 
defended subjects against the abuse of power, or 
against the tyranny of unjust rulers. In Pagan 
times it had the appearance as if the people ex- 
isted for the sovereign, and not the sovereign for 
the people ; but in the days and in the countries 
where the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was 
acknowledged by rulers, the Pagan idea had 
necessarily to disappear, for the Popes gave the 
princes to understand that they existed for the 
people, and. not the people for them. 

Viewed in this light, what a magnificent spec- 
tacle does the Catholic Church present to our ad- 
miration, and how does the honest heart of 
down-trodden nationality yearn that these happy 



284 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

clays may once more return ! Taken mostly 
from the middle classes, sometimes even from the 
most humble ranks of society, the Popes as- 
cended the Chair of Peter; and these men, who 
had been the sons of artisans and mechanics, but 
who had, by their virtue and talent, gained a 
merit which neither wealth nor a noble pedigree 
could bestow, became the arbiters between nation 
and nation, between prince and people, always 
prepared to weld together the chain of broken 
friendship, and to protect, b}'' their power and 
authority, the rights of subjects oppressed by 
tyrannical rulers. It was indeed a blessing for 
Europe that Nicholas I. could curb, with an iron 
hand, the tyranny of kings and nobles. It was 
indeed a blessing, not for Europe alone, but for 
the world, that there lived a genius on earth in 
the person of Gregory VII., who knew how to 
protect the Saxons against the wanton lawlessness 
of Henry, King of Germany, a monster who 
ground his subjects remorsely in the dust, and re- 
spected neither the sanctity of virginity nor the 
sacredness of marriage ; neither the rights of the 
Church, nor those of the State ; whose very ex- 
istence seemed to have no other aim but that of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 285 

• 

the leech, to draw out the blood from the hearts 
of his unhappy subjects. What would have be- 
come of Germany had there not been a power 
superior to that of this godless prince ? It was 
Gregory VII.- who hurled him from his throne, 
and restored to the noble Saxons and Thuringians 
their independence, not by the power of the 
sword, but by the scathing power of his anath- 
ema. The same I may say of Boniface VIII., 
and of Innocent III. There was, happily for 
Europe, a Court of Appeal, to which even mon- 
archs were forced to bow ; and that court was 
Kome. It was to Eome that the nations ap- 
pealed, when their independence was at stake or 
their rights were trampled upon. And Eome 
was never deaf to the cry of distress, whether it 
came from Germany or from France, from Eng- 
land or from Poland, from Spain or from the 
shores of the Bosphorus. 

And when the liberty of a nation was on the 
verge of destruction, and when emperors, and 
kings, and barons rode rough-shod over the rights, 
natural and vested, of their subjects, forgetting 
the sacred trust confided to them, became tyrants, 
when neither prosperity nor undivided liberty 



286 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOT^'. 

« 

were secure from that rapacious grasp ; when 
even the rights of conscience were set aside with 
impunity ; it was the Popes of Rome who buckled 
on the armor of Justice, and humbled the pride 
of princes — even if, as a consequence, they had 
to say, with a Gregory VII., "Dilexi Justitiara et 
odivi iniquitatem ; ideo morior in exilio " — "I die 
in exile because I have loved justice and hated in- 
iquity." 

The injflueuce of Catholicity tends strongly 
to break down all barriers of separate nation- 
alities, and to bring about a brotherhood of 
citizens, in which the love of our common coun- 
try and of one another would absorb every sec- 
tional feeling. Catholicity is of no nation, of no 
language, of no people ; she knows no geograph- 
ical bounds ; she breaks down all the walls of 
separation between race and race, and she looks 
alike upon every people, and tribe, and caste. 
Her views are as enlarged as the territory which 
she inhabits ; and this is as wide as the world. 
Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, Irish, 
German, French, English, and American, are all 
alike to her. The evident tendency of this prin- 
ciple is to level all sectional feelings and local prej- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 287 

udices, by enlarging the views of mankind, and 
thus to bring about harmony in society, based 
upon mutual forbearance and charity. And, in 
fact, so far as the influence of the Catholic Church 
could be brought to bear upon the anomalous con- 
dition of society in America, it has been exercised 
for securing the desirable result of causing all its 
heterogeneous elements to be mero'ed in the one 
variegated but homogeneous nationality. Prot- 
estantism isolates and divides ; Catholicity brings 
together and unites. 

The Catholic Church is a grand fact in history 
— a fact so great that there would be no history 
without it — a fact permanent, repeating itself 
perpetually, entering into the concerns of all the 
nations on the face of the earth, appearing again 
and again on the records of time, and benefiting, 
perceived or unperceived, directly or indirectly, 
socially, morally, and supernaturally, every indi- 
vidual who forms part of the great organism of 
human society. 

Around this Church human society moves like a 
wheel around its axle ; it is on this Church that 
society depends for its support, its life, its en- 
ergy, like the planetary system on the sun. Show 



288 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

me an age, a country, a nation deprived of the in- 
fluence of Catholicity, and I will show you an age, 
a country, a nation without morals, without vir- 
tue. Yes, if "Religion and Science, Liberty and 
Justice, Principle and Right," are not empty 
sounds — if they have a meaning — they owe their 
energetic existence in the world to the Catholic 
Church. 

Such is the power and such is the influence of 
Catholicity. Yet I do not pretend that our Cath- 
olic population is perfect, or that in them you will 
find no shortcomings, nothing to be censured or 
regretted. Certainly in our cities and large towns 
may be found, I am sorry to say, many so-called 
liberal or nominal Catholics, who are no credit to 
their religion, to the land of their birth, or to that 
of their adoption. Subjected at home, as they 
were, to the restraints imposed by Protestant or 
quasi-Protestant governments, they feel, on com- 
ing here, that they are loosed from all restraints, and 
forgetting the obedience they owe to their pastors, 
to the prelates whom the Holy Ghost has placed 
over them, they become insubordinate, and live 
more as non-Catholics than as Catholics. The 
children of these are, to a great extent, shame- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 289 

fully neglected, and suffered to grow up without the 
simplest moral and religious instruction, and to 
become recruits to our vicious population, our 
rowdies and our criminals. This is certainly to 
be deplored, but can easily be explained without 
prejudice to the influence of Catholicity, by advert- 
ing to the condition to which those individuals 
were reduced before coming here ; to their dis- 
appointments and discouragements in a strange 
land ; to their exposure to new and unlooked-for 
temptations ; to the fact that they were by no 
means the best of Catholics even in their native 
countries ; to their poverty, destitution, ignor- 
ance, insufficient culture, and a certain natural shift- 
lessness and recklessness, and to our great lack of 
schools, churches, and priests. The proportion, 
however, that these bear to our whole Catholic 
population, is far less than is commonly supposed, 
and they are not so habitually depraved as they 
appear, for they seldom or never consult appear- 
ances, and have little skill in concealing their 
vices. As low and degraded as this class of our 
Catholic population may be, they never are so low 
or so vicious as the corresponding chiss of non- 
Catholics in every nation. A non-Catholic vicious 

19 



290 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

class is always worse than it appears ; a Catholic 
vicious class is less bad. In the worst there is 
always some germ that, with proper care, may 
be jmrsecl into life, that may blossom and bear 
fruit. Yet, if we look at the Catholic population 
as it is, and is every year becoming, we cannot 
but be struck with its marvellous energy and prog- 
ress. We will find that population more intel- 
lectual, more cultivated, more moral, more active, 
living, and energetic than any other. 

The Catholic population of this country, taken 
as a body, have a personal freedom, an indepen- 
dence, a self-respect, a conscientiousness, a love 
of truth, and a devotion to principle, not to be 
found in any other class of American citizens. 
Their moral tone, as well as their moral standard, 
is far higher, and they act more uniformly under a 
sense of deep responsibility to God and their 
country. They are the most law-loving and law- 
abiding people. The men of that population are 
the most vigorous, and the hardiest ; their virgins 
are the chastest ; their matrons the most foithful. 
Catholics do, as to the great majority, act from 
honest principle, from sincere and earnest convic- 
tion, and are prepared to die sooner than in any 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 291 

grave matters swerve from what they regard as 
truth and justice. They have the prhiciple and 
the firmness to stand by what they believe true 
and just, in good report and evil report, whether 
the world be with them or be ao-ainst the.m. 
Among Catholics you will not find the flunkeyisra 
which Carlyle so unmercifully ridicules in the 
middling classes of Great Britain, or that respect 
to mere wealth, that worship of the money-bag, 
or that base servility to the mob, or public opin- 
ion, so common and so ruinous to public and pri- 
vate virtue in the United States. 

The mental activity of Catholics, all things con- 
sidered, is fiir more remarkable than that of our 
non-Catholic countrymen ; and, in proportion to 
their numbers and means, they contribute far more 
than any other class of American citizens to the 
purposes of education, both common and liberal, 
for they receive little or nothing from the public 
treasury ; and in addition to supporting numerous 
schools of their own, they are forced to contribute 
their quota to the support of those of the State. 
Thus, to take a single illustration, the public 
school-tax in Cincinnati for last year amounted 
to $810,000. Of this the Catholics — such is 



292 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

their proportion in that comraunity — contributed 
$230,000, or more than one-third of the whole 
rate. Tiiis large sum — £162,000 — goes to the 
management and formation of schools which the 
Catholics of Cincinnati are debarred, by their con- 
sciences, from entering. They have therefore their 
own schools, wiiich the}^ have built, and support 
entirely at their own expense, without any assist- 
ance whatever from the State. The education 
which they give is known to be excellent ; but it 
is based on religion, and is not controlled by the 
State and paid officials. The consequence is, that 
not only are they not encouraged, but they are ac- 
tually taxed by the State. 

Thus, for instance, the Cathedral School is 
obliged to pay to the State an annual tax of £120, 
and the schools of another parish £200. The 
Catholics of the Cathedral Parish have not only to 
pay the State school-tax, and the heavy tax laid on 
their school-buildings, but they have to find 
$3,500 annually to meet the current school ex- 
penses. All this has to be collected by the clergy 
Jis best thc3'^ can. 

The non-Catholic has no conception of the treas- 
ure the Union possesses in these thirteen millions 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 293 

of Catholics, humble in their outward circumstan- 
ces as the majority of them may be. A true, 
high-toned, chivalric national character will be 
formed, and a true, generous, and lofty patriotism 
will be generated and sustained in proportion as 
the force of Catholicity is brought to bear upon 
our American people, and the life of practical 
Catholics falls into the current of American life. 
Catholics have their faults and shortcomings, j^et 
they are the salt of the American community, and 
the really conservative element in the American 
population. In a few years they will be the 
Americans of the Americans, and on them will 
rest the performance of the glorious work of sus- 
taining American civilization, and realizing the 
hopes of the founders of our great and growing 
Eepublic. 

It must, then, be evident to every true lover of 
the Eepublic, that the State, were it at liberty to 
favor any particular portion of the community, 
should favor its conservative element — the Cath- 
olics — instead of robbing Catholics of millions of 
dollars, to continue, by godless education, the im- 
pious work for the increase of the number of ene- 
mies of the Republic ; it should rather supply 



294 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Catholics with the means to bring up their chil- 
dren in the spirit of true freedom — in the spirit 
of devotedness to republican institutions. But 
as the State is neither Catholic nor Protestant, it 
should at least act justly and impartially ; it should 
not favor its own enemies ; it should not make a 
lie or a farce of our glorious Constitution ; it 
should no longer play the usurper and the robber ; 
it should no longer continue dio^ging its own grave ; 
it should not tax Catholics any longer to support 
infidel institutions — nurseries of all kinds of 
crimes — and thus continue to violate most atro- 
ciously the very letter and spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, and to commit a direct outrage on the most 
sacred convictions of Catholics. 

It is the well-instructed practical Catholic that 
is alone capable of appreciating and realizing true 
freedom. Ever foremost to concede the rights of 
God, ever careful to trench on the rights of his 
fellow-creatures, he is, for all this (and precisely 
because of this) , well aware of his own rights and 
dignity as a man, as a citizen, and as a baptized 
Christian — a regenerated son of God — and, 
knowing his rights and dignity, he dares main- 
tain them ! He protests against godless educa- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 295 

tion as a volcano that is destined to bury law and 
authority, and bring about universal anarchy, and 
prepare and establish the reign of antichrist. 
We must, then, have separate schools to educate 
our rising generation in a religious atmosphere, 
and imbue them with the principles of Christian- 
ity. All those who oppose any longer the denom- 
inational sj^stem, in any manner whatsoever, are 
traitors to the Republic and the worst enemies of 
the country, and from henceforth the vengeance 
of God will not be slow to overtake them. On 
the contrary, he who will be first and foremost in 
promoting this noblest of objects — the establish- 
ment of denominational schools — may truly be 
called the saviour of the Republic, — the father of 
Ids country ; he will be as great, nay, even greater, 
than Washington himself. Upon him the bless- 
ings of heaven will descend in superabundance, 
and his name will be blessed from generation to 
generation. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CATHOLIC PRIEST ON THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 
SYSTEM. 




jo far I have spoken as an American cit- 
izen. I have shown to all my fellow- 
citizens the tree with its fruits — the 
Public School system in broad daylight. All 
who call themselves Christians, or who consider 
themselves men of common sense, and warm pro- 
moters of the happiness of their fellow-citizens, 
will agree with me in saying that the Public 
School system is a tree of which we must say 
what God said to Adam of the tree standing in 
the middle of paradise : " Of the tree of knowl- 
edjje of good and evil thou shalt not eat. For 
in what day soever thou shall eat of it tJiou shalt 
die the death.'' — (Gen ii. 17.) It is now time 
for me to speak as a priest of the Roman Catholic 
(296) 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 297 

Church. It is the duty of the Catholic priest to 
teach the children of the Catholic Church the 
language of their spiritual Mother — the Church. 
This language is no other than that of the Su- 
preme Head of the Church — the Pope. Now the 
laniruage of the Vicar of Christ in regard to god- 
less education is very plain and unmistakable. 

Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour, has said : 
" What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole 
world, and suffer the loss of his own' soul?" — 
(Matt. xvi. 26.) What will it profit you or your 
children to gain all knowledge, and to attain the 
greatest success in this world, if, through your 
fault, and through your exposing them to the dan- 
ger of evil education, they ^ufier the loss of that 
faith, without which " it is impossible to please 
God"?— (Heb. xi.) 

Teaching of the Syllabus. 

Guided by this principle, our Holy Father, 
Pope Pius IX., has declared that Catholics cannot 
" ajpjprove of a system of educating youth uncon- 
nected with the Catholic Faith and the power of 
the Church, and which regards the 'knowledge of 



298 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOiV. 

merely natural things, and only, or at least pri- 
marily, the ends of earthly social life." * Catholic 
parents cannot approve of an ediicatiou which fits 
their children only for this life, and ignores that 
life in which the sonl is to live forever. As faith 
is the foundation of all our hopes for eternity, 
and as faith without good works is dead, we can- 
not choose for our children an education which 
would endanger their fliith and morals, and con- 
sequcntlyimperil their eternal welfare. 

Teaching of Pope Pius VII. 

This is no novel doctrine, as some assert. In 
the beginning of the century, the illustrious Pius 
VII., in an Encyclical letter addressed to the 
Bishops of the Catholic world, July 10th, 1800, 
thus writes : — 

"It is your duty to take care of the whole flock 
over Avhich the Holy Ghost has placed you as 

* " Hant propositionem auctoritate Nostra Apostolica repro- 
banius, proscribimas atque damnanius eamque ab omnibus 
Catholieae EcclesiaB filiis veluti reprobatam, proscriptatn atque 
damnatam omnino habcri volunias et manJamus." — Syllabus, 
Prop, xlviii. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 299 

Bishops, but in particular to watch over children 
and young men. They ought to be the special 
object of your paternal love, of your vigilant so- 
licitude, of your zeal, of all your care. They 
who have tried to subvert society and families, to 
destroy authority, divine and human, have spared 
no pains to infect and corrupt youth, hoping thus 
the more easily to execute their infamous projects. 
They know that the mind and heart of young per- 
sons, like soft wax, to which one may give what 
form he pleases, are very susceptible of every sort 
of impression ; that they keep tenaciously, when 
age has now hardened them, those which they had 
early received, and reject others. Thence the 
well-known proverb taken from the Scripture, 'A 
young man according to his way, even when he is 
old he will not depart from it.' Suffer not, then, 
venerable brethren, the children of this world to 
be more prudent in this respect than the children 
of light. Examine, therefore, with the greatest 
attention, to what manner of persons is confided 
the education of children, and of young men in the 
colleges and seminaries ; of what sort are the in- 
structions given them ; what sort of schools exist 
among you ; of what sort are the teachers in the 



300 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOlSr. 

lyceums. Examine into all this with the greatest 
care, sound everything, let nothing escape your 
vigilant eye : keep off, repulse the ravening wolves 
that seek to devour these innocent lambs ; drive 
out of the sheepfold those which have gotten in ; 
remove them as soon as can be, for such is the 
power which has been given to jt'ou by the Lord 
for the edification of your sheep.'' 

Rescripts of His Present Holiness Condemning 
the Queen's Colleges of England. 

Our Holy Father Pope Pius IX., consulting for 
the special wants of the Catholics of Ireland, has 
not ceased, almost from the very beginning of his 
glorious pontificate, to repeat similar instructions 
in his apostolic letters to the Irish Bishops. Hence, 
by his rescripts of October 1847, and October 1848, 
he condemned, from their first institution, the 
Queen's Colleges, on account of their " grievous 
and intrinsic dangers to faith and morals " ; and 
since then he has frequently repeated his sacred 
admonitions, warning the bishops and the faithful 
people to beware of evil systems of public instruc- 
tion, and to secure, by every means in their power, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOjST. 301 



the blessin2:3 of Catholic eclucation for the risms: 
generation. 



Resolutions of Irish Bishops in 1824 and 1826. 

Nor have the Irish prelates been unmindful of 
their duty in this respect. In 1824, that is to say, 
five years before Catholic emancipation, and in the 
midst of the struggle for that recognition of the 
existence of their people as citizens, they presented 
to Parliament a petition, from which I make the 
following extract, which clearly shows their con- 
viction of the necessity of religious education : 

" That in the Eoman Catholic Church the literary 
and religious instruction of youth are universally 
combined, and that no system of education which 
separates them can be acceptable to the members 
of her communion ; that the religious instruction 
of youth in Catholic schools is always conveyed 
by means of catachetical instruction, daily prayer, 
and the reading of religious books, wherein the 
Gospel morality is explained and inculcated ; that 
Roman Catholics have ever considered the readino- 
of the Sacred Scriptures by children as an inadequate 
means of imparting to them religious instruction, 



302 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

as a usa^e whereby the Word of God is made liable 
to irreverence, youth exposed to misunderstand its 
meaning, and thereby not unfrequently to receive 
in early life impressions which may afterwards 
prove injurious to their own best interests, as well 
as to those of the society which they are destined 
to form. That schools whereof the master professes 
a religion different from that of his pupils, or from 
which such religious instruction as the Catholic 
Church prescribes for youth is excluded, or in 
which books and tracts not sanctioned by it are 
read or commented on, cannot be resorted to by 
the children of Roman Catholics ; and that threats 
and rewards have been found equally unavailing 
as a means of inducing Catholic parents to pro- 
cure education for their children from such persons 
or in such schools ; that any system of education 
incompatible with the discipline of the Catholic 
Church, or superintended exclusively by persons 
professing a religion different from that of the vast 
majority of the poor of Ireland, cannot possibly be 
acceptable to the latter, and must, in its progress, 
be slow and embarrassed, generating often distrust 
and discord as well as a want of that mutual good 
faith and perfect confidence which should prevail 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 303 

between those wtio receive benefits and those who 
dispense them." 

The Irish Bishops again expressed the like sen- 
timents in 1826. ***** 

A.ddress of the National Synod of Thurles. 

A National Synod met in Thurles in August, 
1860, and again the Prelates spoke words of in- 
struction, of which recent sad events in France 
have furnished a new and most melancholy con- 
firmation. 

" As rulers of the Church of Christ, chief pastors 
of His flock, religiously responsible to the Prince 
of Pastors for every soul committed to our charge, 
it forms, as is obvious, our first and paramount 
duty to attend to the pastures in which they feed 
— the doctrines with which they are nourished. 
And surely if ever there was a period which called 
for the unsleeping vigilance, the prudent foresight, 
the intrepid and self-sacrificing zeal of our august 
ministry — that period is the present. The alarm- 
ing spectacle which the Christian world exhibits at 
the present day, the novel but formidable forms 
in which error presents itself, and the manifold 



304 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

evils and perils by which the Church is eucomptissed, 
must be evident to the most superficial observer. 
It is no longer a single heresy or an eccentric fan- 
aticism, the denial of some revealed truth, or the 
excesses of some extravagant error, but a compre- 
hensive, all-pervading, well-digested sj'stem of 
unbelief, suited to every capacity and reaching 
every intellect, that corrupts and desolates the 
moral world. Is not such the calamitous spec- 
tacle which the continent of Europe offers to us 
at this moment? Education, the source of all in- 
tellectual life, by which the mind of man is nur- 
tured and disciplined, his principles determined, 
his feelings regulated, his judgments fixed, his 
character formed, has been forcibly dissevered 
from every connection with religion, and made the 
vehicle of that cold scepticism and heartless in- 
diflFerentism which have seduced and corrupted 
youth, and by a necessary consequence shaken to 
its centre the whole fabric of social life. Sep- 
arated from her heavenly monitor, learning is no 
lono;er the oro-an of that wisdom which cometh 
from above, which, according to St. James, is 
'chaste, peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, 
consenting to the good, full of mercy and good 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 305 

fruits, without judging, without dissimulation,' 
but rather of that wisdom which he describes as 
'earthly, sensual, and devilish.' — (James iii. 
15-17.) 

"It is, we feel assured, unnecessary to observe 
to you, that of all modes of propagating error, 
education is the most subtle and dangerous, fur- 
nishing, as it does, the aliment by which the social 
body is sustained, which circulates through every 
vein, and reaches every member ; and that if this 
aliment should prove to be corrupt or deleterious, 
it will not fail to carry moral disease and death to 
the entire system. Hence the awful obligations 
we are under, at the peril of our souls, of watch- 
ing over the education of the people whom God has 
intrusted to our charge. 

"Listen to the emphatic words in which the 
present illustrious Pontiff sets forth the dangers 
to which youth is exposed at the present time, 
and the duties which are placed upon the pastors 
of the people in this regard. 'It is incumbent 
upon you,' he says, 'and upon ourselves, to labor 
with all diligence and energy, and with great firm- 
ness of purpose, and to be vigilant in everything 
that regards schools, and the instruction and edu- 

20 



306 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

cation of children and yonths of both sexes. For 
you well know that the modern enemies of relig- 
ion and human society, with a most diabolical 
spirit, direct all their artifices to pervert the minds 
and hearts of youth from their earliest years. 
"Wherefore, they leave nothing untried ; they 
shrink from no attempt to withdraw schools, and 
every institution destined for the eclucation of 
youth, from the authority of the Church and the 
vigilance of her holy pastors.' — Encycl. Letter of 
Pius IX., eighth December, 1849. 

" Such are the words of the Vicar of Jesus 
Christ, which show the responsibility under which 
we are placed, and point out our duty to protect 
from the insidious snares laid for their destruction 
the lambs of the fold — that most helpless but 
precious portion of the flock of Jesus Christ 
which the prophet represents as carried in His 
bosom." 



Mixed System again Condemned. 

Again, in 1859, 1862, 1863, 1867, and 1869, 
the Irish Bishops renewed their condemnation of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 307 

the godless system, and demanded for their chil- 
dren the advantage of truly Catholic education. 



Unanimity of Catholic Bishops throughout the 
World on this Point. 

The Bishops of Prussia, of Austria, of Bel- 
gium, of Holland, of Canada, and of the United 
States, in their pastorals, their synodical ad- 
dresses, and in their other publications, condemn 
with one accord the mixed system, and declare 
that education based upon our holy religion is 
alone suitable for Catholic children. Not to mul- 
tiply quotations, it will suffice to cite the follow- 
ing extract from the address of the Plenary Synod 
of the Church of the United States, held at Bal- 
timore, in the year 1866. That Council was one 
of the most numerous assemblies held after the 
Council of Trent, until the meeting of the Gen- 
eral Council of the Vatican. Its decrees were 
signed by seven Archbishops, thirty-seven Bish- 
ops, two procurators of absent Bishops, and two 
Abbots.' 



308 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

"ADDRESS OF THE PLEN^ARY 8YK0D OF BALTIMORE, 

UNITED STATES. 

"The experience of every clay shows more and 
more plainly what serious evils and great dangers 
are entailed upon Catholic youth by their fre- 
quentation of Public Schools in this country. 
Such is the nature of the system of teaching 
therein employed, that it is not possible to pre- 
vent young Catholics from incurring, through its 
influence, danger to their faith and morals ; nor 
can we ascribe to any other cause that destruc- 
tive spirit of indifferentism which has made, and 
is now making, such rapid strides in this coun- 
try, and that corruption of morals which we have 
to deplore in those of tender years. Familiar in- 
tercourse with those of false religions, or of no 
religion ; the daily use of authors who assail with 
calumny and sarcasm our holy religion, its prac- 
tices, and even its saints — these gradually impair, 
in the minds of Catholic children, the vigor and in- 
fluence of the true religion. Besides, the morals 
and examples of their fellow-scholars are generally 
so corrupt, and so great their license in word and 
deed, that through continual contact with them the 
modesty and piety of our children, even of those 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 309 

who have been best trained at home, disappear like 
,wax before the fire. These evils and danglers did 
not escape the knowledge of our predecessors, as we 
learn from the following decrees : 

" ' (a) Whereas many Catholic children, espec- 
ially those born of poor parents, have been, and 
are still, exposed in several places of this province, 
to great danger of losing their faith and morals, 
owing to the want of good masters to whom their 
education may safely be intrusted, we consider it 
absolutely necessary that schools should be estab- 
lished in which the young may be imbued with 
the principles of faith and morality, and at the same 
receive instruction in letters.' " — Gouncil of Bal- 
timore, JSTo. 33. 



Teachings of the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IX. 

In fine, to show the union of the Bishops 
throughout the world with the Apostolic See in 
their teaching respecting education, I add the 
words of the Supreme Pontiff" Pope Pius IX., in 
which, replying to the Archbishop of Freiburg, in 
Germany, His Holiness clearly expounds, as the 



310 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

lufiillible Teacher of the faithful, the truth I am 
novv developing for the instruction of Catholics : 

"It is not wonderful that these unhappy efforts 
(to spread irreligious and revolutionary prin- 
ciples) should be directed chiefly to corrupt the 
training and education of youth ; and there is no 
doubt that the greatest injury is inflicted on 
society, when the directing authority and salutary 
power of the Church are withdrawn from public 
and private education, on which the happiness of 
the Church and of tlie Commonwealth depends so 
much. For thus society is, little by little, de- 
prived of that truly Christian spirit which alone 
can permanently secure the foundation of peace 
and public order, and promote and direct the true 
and useful progress of civilization, and give man 
those helps which are necessary for him in order 
to attain, after this life, his last end hereafter — 
eternal happiness. And in truth a system of 
teaching, which not only is limited to the knowl- 
edge of natural things, and does not pass beyond 
the bounds of our life on earth, but also departs 
from the truth revealed by God, must necessarily 
be guided by the spirit of error and lies ; and 
education, which, without the aid of the Christian 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 311 

/ 

doctrine and of its salutary moral precepts, in- 
structs the minds and moulds the tender heart of 
youth, which is so prone to evil, must infallibly 
produce a generation which will have no guide 
but its own wicked passions and wild conceits, 
and which will be a source of the greatest mis- 
fortunes to the Commonwealth and their own 
families. 

"But if this detestable system of education, so 
far removed from Catholic faith and ecclesiastical 
authority, becomes a source of evils, both to in- 
dividuals and to society, when it is employed in 
the higher teaching, and in schools frequented by 
the better class, wlio does not see that the same 
system will give rise to still greater evils, if it be 
introduced into primary schools? For it is in 
these schools, above all, that the children of the 
people ought to be carefully taught from their 
tender years the mysteries and precepts of our 
holy religion, and to be trained with diligence to 
piety, good morals, religion and civilization. In 
such schools religious teaching ought to have so 
leading a place in all that concerns education and 
instruction, that whatever else the children may 



312 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

learn should appear subsidiary to it. The young, 
therefore, are exposed to the greatest perils when- 
ever, in the schools, education is not closely united 
with religious teaching. Wherefore, since primary 
schools are established chiefly to give the people 
a religious education, and to lead them to piety 
and Christian morality, they have justly attracted 
to themselves, in a greater degree than other 
educational institutions, all the care, solicitude, 
and vio-ilance of the Church. The desio^n of 
withdrawing primary schools from the control of 
the Church, and the exertions made to carry this 
design into effect, are therefore inspired by a 
spirit of hostility towards her, and by the desire 
of extinguishing among the people the divine 
light of our holy faith. The Church, which has 
founded these schools, has ev^er regarded them 
with the greatest care and interest, and looked 
upon them as the chief object of her ecclesiastical 
authority and government } and whatsoever re- 
moved them from her, inflicted serious injury 
both on her and on the schools. Those who pre- 
tend that the Church ought to abdicate or suspend 
her control and her salutary action upon the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 313 

primary schools, in reality ask her to disobey the 
commands of her Divine Author, and to be false 
to ' the charge she has received from God, of 
guiding all men to salvation ; and in whatever 
country this pernicious design of removing the 
schools from the ecclesiastical authority should be 
entertained and carried into execution, and the 
young thereby exposed to the danger of losing 
their faith, there the Church would be in duty 
bound not only to use her best efforts, and to 
employ every means to secure for them the neces- 
sary Christian education and instruction, but, 
moreover, would feel herself obliged to warn all 
the faithful, and to declare that no one can in 
conscience frequent such schools, as being adverse 
to the Catholic Church." 

I exclaim with the great St. Augustine : " Se- 
curus judicat orbis terrarum." The Bishops of 
the universal world, united to the Vicar of 
Christ, speak with authority; their judgment 
cannot be gainsaid. Peter has spoken through 
Pius ; the question is settled ; would that the 
error, too, were at an end ! 



314 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Testimonies of Enemies of ike CatJioUc Church, 

However, it is not from the Bishops alone that 
we learn the dangers of bad edncatiou. Onr op- 
ponents, too, the enemies of onr holy religion, 
deem no other means more efficacious for alienat- 
ing our children from our mother, the Catholic 
Church. 

One of the greatest enemies of the Catholic faith 
in the first half of the last century, Primate Boul- 
ter, who took a chief part in founding the noto- 
rious "Charter Schools," writing to the Bishop of 
London on the fifteenth of May, 1730, said : 

"I can assure you the Papists here are so nu- 
merous, that it highly concerns us in point of in- 
terest, as well as out of concern for the salvation 
of these poor creatures who are our fellow-sub- 
jects, to try all possible means to bring them and 
theirs to the true religion ; and one of the most 
likely methods we can think of is, if possible, in- 
structing and converting the young generation ; for 
instead of converting these that are adults, we 
are daily losing many of our meaner people, who 
go off to Popery." 

xlnd with respect to mixed education in par- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 315 

ticular, we have the opinion of another Anglican 
prelate, who, in despite of his professions of liber- 
ality, may be fittingly classed with Primate Boul- 
ter in his contempt for our people, and desire to 
subvert our holy religion by the means of educa- 
tion — the late Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, 
Dr. Whately. We are informed by his daughter, 
that on one occasion he said : " The education 
supplied by the National Board is gradually un- 
derminino; the vast fabric of the Irish Eoman 
Catholic Church." {Life of Dr. Whately, pp. 
244, first edition.) Again : " I believe, as I said 
the other day, that mixed education is graduallj'' 
enlightening the mass of the people, and that if 
we give it up, we give the only hope of weaning 
the Irish from the abuses of Popery. But I can- 
not venture openly to profess this opinion, I can- 
not openly support the Educational Board as an 
instrument of conversion. I have to fight its 
battles with oue hand , and that my best, tied be- 
hind me." (p. 246.) 

The language of the Church, then, and even 
that of the enemies of our religion, is quite plain 
on the subject of godless education. The good 
Catholic understands this language of his spiritual 



316 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOX. 

mother; he listens to it; he repeats it to himself 
and others, and he goes by it. Not long ago the 
Catholics of Ireland presented a requisition to the 
English Government to show their unanimity, and 
their determination to secure a Catholic education 
for Catholic children. What a srlorious arrav of 
signatures is attached to it ! There we find the 
honored names of the only Catholic lords that the 
operation of penal laws has left in that land ever 
faithful to the Church. There we read the names 
of the Lord Mayor, and the aldermen and town 
councillors of the great City of Dublin, of man}'- 
baronets and deputy lieutenants, of several mem- 
bers of Parliament, magistrates, high sheriffs, 
clergymen, wealthy merchants, and land-owners ; 
of men distinguished in the various scientific and 
literary professions or pursuits ; of country gen- 
tlemen, traders, artisans, and of all the classes 
that constitute the bone and sinew of the countr3^ 
In a word, the requisition is signed by more than 
30,000 Catholics of every degree. May it not be 
considered as a great plebiscite ? Is it not a proof 
that the laity and clergy are all of one mind? Is 
it not a solid refutation of the foolish assertion of 
some Presbyterians, that the Catholic laity take no 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 317 

interest in the education question, and that, were 
it not for the priests, the laity would be perfectly 
satisfied to accept godless instruction for their 
children? Tliose who attribute this baneful in- 
difference to the laity, misrepresent and calumniate 
them, and show their ignorance of their real feel- 
ings, and of the efforts which Catholics in Ireland, 
in Belgium, in Germany, and in other countries, 
have made to have and to preserve a good Chris- 
tian education for their children. The principal 
Catholic gentlemen in Ireland some time ao^o 
published an important declaration, presented 
afterwards to Parliament, in which they proclaimed 
their adhesion to the principles held by the true 
Church in regard to education. 

As for the Catholic laity of Ireland in general, 
feeling, as they do in a special manner, the signal 
blessing they enjoy in possessing the true faith, 
and knowing that it is a priceless treasure with 
which, far more precious than worldly substance, 
they can enrich their children, their love for 
Catholic education is proved to evidence by the 
multitudes of their sons and danghters who throng 
every Catholic school, and especially every school 
in which the presence of Christian Brothers or of 



318 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Nuns o-ives a o-uarantee that relioflon shall have 
the first place, and shall impregnate the whole 
atmosphere Avhich their little ones are to breathe 
for so many hours of the day. They have proved, 
also, their dislike and fear of mixed education, by 
turning their faces away from schools in which no 
expense had been spared, on which thousands of 
pounds of the public money had been squandered, 
but against which their -Bishops deemed it their 
duty to warn them. Hence, in several Model 
Schools erected in populous cities and towns, 
where the great majority of the inhabitants are 
Catholics, sometimes not ten, sometimes not two 
of their children are found within the unhallowed 
precints of those mixed institutions. 

In fine, the opinion of all the Irish Catholics on 
this subject of education is so well known, that 
nearly all of the Liberal candidates who sought 
their votes at the last elections for the House of 
Commons, declared in their electioneering ad- 
dresses their adhesion to the principle of denom- 
inational education, and their determination to 
uphold it, and push it forward in Parliament. 

And with good reason are they steadfast in 
those principles, for they know the necessary 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 319 

connection between good education and the main- 
tenance of religion in tlieir country. And they 
are determined to struggle for the establishment, 
in Ireland, of a sound Catholic system of public 
education, and never to relax their efforts till they 
obtain the recognition of this, their own and their 
children's right, even as they wrung Catholic 
emancipation from a hostile Parliament. 

Thus the Catholic laity practise what their pas- 
tors teach ; and in Ireland and other countries, 
both pastors and people are united in holding that 
nothing so effectually destroys religion in a coun- 
try as a godless system of instruction, whilst they 
believe, at the same time, that a good Christian 
education contributes to preserve true religion, 
and to spread the practice of every virtue and of 
good works through the land. 

Though the Catholic Church and her children 
are so anxious for the progress of knowledge, and 
have made such sacrifices for the civilization and 
enlightenment of the Avorld, yet they do not in- 
discriminately approve of every system of edu- 
cation. Every one knows how much is done in 
our days, by the enemies of religion, to poison the 
sources of knowledge, and to undermine religion, 



320 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

under the pretext of promoting the liberal arts 
and sciences. In order to give a proper impulse 
to study, by securing protection for it, some in- 
sist that the full control of public instruction 
should be given to the government of each coun- 
try, to be curried on by Ministers of State, or 
public boards ; others attach so much importance 
to the development of the intellectual faculties, 
that they call for compulsory and gratuitous edu- 
cation, in order to give a great degree of culture 
to all classes ; and others, in fine, demand an 
unsectarian education, pretending that God should 
be banished from the school, and children brought 
up without being subjected to any religious in- 
fluences. The Catholic Church and her pastors, 
beinf? charojed to feed the flock of Christ with the 
food of truth and life, and to preserve the lambs 
of the fold from the contagion of error, cannot 
approve such systems, which seem to have been 
invented by the fashion of the day, a desire of 
innovation, or a spirit of hostility to religion. 

It was to His Church, and not to the State, that 
Jesus Christ gave the command, " Go and teach all 
nations." — (Matt, xxviii.) " As the Father hath 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 321 

sent Me, so do I send you also." — (John xx.) 
"Feed My lambs, feed My sheep." — (John xxi.) 

The office of the Church is to teach and sanctify 
all men. She receives the child on its first en- 
trance into the world, and, by means of holy 
baptism, makes it a child of God. Like her Di- 
vine Bridegroom, she says : " Suffer the little 
children to come to me." 

Now the Christian school is the place and the 
provision made for the training of those who are 
baptized into the Christian faith. They have been 
made children of God, and as such they have a 
right to four things belonging to them by a right 
of inheritance, to which all other rights are sec- 
ondary. They have a right to the knowledge of 
their faith ; to the training of their conscience by 
the knowledofe of God's commandments ; to the 
Sacraments of grace ; and to a moral formation, 
founded on the precepts and example of our Di- 
vine Saviour. These four things belong, by a 
Divine right, to the child of the poorest working 
man ; by a right more sacred than that which 
guards the inheritance of lands and titles to the 
child of the rich. A child of God, and an heir to 
the kingdom of heaven, holds these four things by 

21 



322 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

a higher title ; and his claim is under the jurisdic- 
tion of a Divine Jud2:e. But the school is the 
place and the provision for the insuring of these 
four vital parts of his right to the Christian child. 
They cannot be taught or learned elsewhere ; 
there is no other place of systematic and sufficient 
formation. And if so, then the school becomes 
the depository of the rights of parents, and of 
the inheritance of their children. The school is 
strictljr a court of the Temple, a porch outside 
the Sanctuary. It cannot be separated from the 
Church. It was created by the Church, and the 
Church created it for its own missiou to its chil- 
dren. As the Church cannot surrender to any 
power on earth the formation of its own children, 
so it cannot surrender to any the direction of its 
own schools. 

It was the Church, as I have shown in the 
second chapter, that gave life and being to Chris- 
tian education ; and education must remain under 
the guardianship of the Church, if it will not cease 
to be Christian. History shows us that it is the 
Church that lias civilized the nations, and it is 
the Church that keeps them from falling back into 
their former degradation. Learning was not dif- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 323 

fused amons: maukind until the Church removed 
the veil of sin and ignorance, made man really 
free, and widened the narrow limits of human 
thought by showing to man the infinite, the eter- 
nal destiny that awaited him. This supernatural 
light — this " freedom of the children of God " — is 
the very foundation, the very lifespring of civ- 
ilization. The Catholic Church, then, far from 
being opposed to education, is its great and most 
zealous promoter. But she cannot help being 
opposed to the Pagan system of education adopted 
in the Public Schools of this country. 

It is clear that this plan takes away the right of 
parents, whom God has charged with the care of 
their children, and it must necessarily interfere 
with the proper management of families. In the 
second place, it ignores the rights of the Church, 
to whom Christ gave the commission to teach all 
nations. In the third place, since governments, 
as constituted at present, have no religion, the 
teaching they give must tend to infidelity. In 
the fourth place, if governments take into their 
hands the management of things which do not 
appertain to them, the probability is that they 
will neglect, or carry on badly, the great temporal 



324 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

affairs which it is their duty to attend to. In the 
last place, experience shows that education carried 
on by the State is most expensive, and that it 
opens the way to intrigues and frauds. To con- 
firm all these observations, it is sufficient to refer 
to France, where State influence has been supremo 
for the last seventy years in university education, 
and where the Government has exercised an ex- 
orbitant control over every branch of public 
instruction. What has been the result? Litera- 
ture has fallen away, the number of schools has 
decreased, the French language has decayed, 
whilst moral corruption has penetrated the heart 
of the country, and infidelity of the worst kind has 
been patronized and encouraged among the teach- 
ers of youth, and the highest honors have been 
decreed to Littres and Renans, and other decided 
enemies of Jesus Christ. May we not read the 
condemnation of all such proceedings in the lurid 
flames of the burning Capital of modern civiliza- 
tion? Now, is it not clear that the primary ob- 
ject of education must be frustrated in the mixed 
system which proposes to unite children of all 
religions in the same school, and to treat of noth- 
ing in the class hours that could offend any of 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 325 

these cliscordant elements? If there be !i Jew in 
the school, you camiot speak of the Gospel; if 
there be a Mahometan, nothing could be said 
against polygamy, and other degrading doctrines 
of the Koran ; due respect must also be paid to 
the teaching of Arians and Socinians, who deny 
the Trinity of persons in God, and the Divinity of 
Christ ; and to the opinions of Calvinists and 
Lutherans, of Methodists and other sectaries, 
who assail almost every point of revealed re- 
ligion. In this case, how can the atmosphere of 
the school be religious ; and must not children liv- 
ing in it grow up in ignorance both of the dogmas 

and practices of religion ? 

« 
This result may not be unacceptable to those 

who are outside the Catholic Church, because, 

not acknowledging any Divine authority to guide 

or rule them, they have no certainty in doctrinal 

matters, and they do not attach any importance 

to external discipline. But how different is the 

case with Catholics ! We have many distinctive 

doctrines, such as the Real Presence in the 

Blessed Eucharist, the power of remitting sin, 

the Divine origin of the Church, and the primacy 

and infallibity of the Pope, all which it is our 



326 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

duty to learn and to believe. We are also bound 
to observe many precepts, to hear Mass, to pray 
and make the sign of the Cross, to go to confes- 
sion, to fast and abstain, and to obey other com- 
mandments of the Church. If these doctrines, 
so sublime, and so far above the intelligence of 
man, be not continually inculcated on the mind 
of a child, how can he know them, or believe 
them as he ought? And if the practices referred 
to be not frequently urged on his attention, will 
he not ignore or neglect them because they are 
hard to flesh and blood ? And what will be the 
case where the Protestant pupils in a school are 
in a consideral)le majority, and the teacher of the 
same reli2:ion ? Will not the Protestant children 
turn the doctrines and practices of the Catholics 
into ridicule? And will not the example, and 
the words, and the gestures of the heterodox 
master, especially if he be kind and friendly, 
produce impressions dangerous to belief on the 
youthful Catholic mind? Is it not probable that 
a Catholic boy, observing how his master, to 
whom he looks up with respect, is accustomed to 
act, will easily persuade himself that there is no 
necessity of going to confession, or fasting, or 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 327 

making the sign of the cross, or performing 
works of mortification? Indeed, the probability 
is that Catholics educated in such circumstances, 
if they do not abandon their religion altogether, 
will be only lukewarm, indifferent, or dangerous 
members of the Church. 

And here let me direct your attention to another 
dangerous tendency of godless education. In this 
system all religions, true or false, are treated with 
equal respect ; not only Anglicans and Presbyter- 
ians, but Wesleyans and Plymouth Brothers, and 
the followers of every other small and miserable 
sect that has started into existence in modern 
times, are put on a footing of equality with the 
true Catholic Church, which traces its origin back 
to its Divine Founder, has existed in every age, 
defied the fury of persecution and the ravages of 
time, and numbers under its sceptre two hundred 
millions of faithful children spread over the world. 
And is not this to proclaim that there is no differ- 
ence between light and darkness, no preference to 
be given to Christ over Belial, to truth over heresy, 
and error and infidelity? In a word, is not this to 
teach indifference to religion, or, what is equiv- 
alent, that no religion is necessary? What shall I 



328 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

now say of books so compiled as to meet the exi- 
gencies of godless education? Have they not the 
same tendency to promote ignorance of, or indiffer- 
ence to, relio^ion? No religious dogmatical teach- 
ing, no inculcation of pious practices, no mention 
of the great and sublime mysteries of Catholicity 
can be admitted in them, lest some things should 
be said offensive to any sect that sends children to 
the school. This suppression of Catholic truth is 
most detrimental to our poor Catholic children, 
many of whom never read any books except those 
which they use in school, and learn nothing ex- 
cept what they meet with in those books, or hear 
from their master. Is not this a serious loss? Is 
it not a great evil for Catholics to be brought up 
in ignorance, not only of the doctrines, but also 
of the history of the Church to which they belong, 
and of the life and deeds of so many Christian 
heroes whose virtues illustrated the world? 

How far superior is the system of the Christian 
Brothers, and other Catholic educational institu- 
tions ! Their books make continual reference to 
the mysteries of religion, they depict the glories 
of the Church, the majesties of the Apostolic See, 
and continually inflame the youthful mind to the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 329 

practice of good works, by proposing to them the 
lives and virtues of holy men, and by continually 
reminding them of their religious dnties, of the 
end of man, and of other great motives calculated 
to induce them to serve God. In res^ard to this 
matter, I shall merely add that the common school- 
books have been generally compiled by Protes- 
tants, that scarcely any extract from Catholic 
authors is admitted in them, that they contain 
many Methodistical stories, that their language is 
that of the Protestant Bible, and that they con- 
tain many things offensive to our love of religion. 
Do you want to see what man without God — 
without religion — can do ? Read the history of the 
last eighty years in Paris. You have there one 
simple phenomenon — generation rising after gen- 
eration, without God in the world. And why? 
Because, without Christian education. First, an 
atheistical revolution ; next, an empire penetrated 
through with a masking philosophy and a reckless 
indifferentism ; afterwards came governments 
changed in name and in form, but not in practice, 
nor in spirit. The Church, trammelled by pro- 
tection, her spiritual action faint and paralyzed, 
could not penetrate the masses of the people, and 



330 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

bring her salutary influence to bear upon them. 
She labored fervently ; her sons fought nobly for 
Christian freedom ; thousands were saved ; but for 
eighty years the mass of men has grown up without 
God and without Christ in the world. These out- 
bursts of horror, strife, outrage, sacrilege, blood- 
shed, are the harvest reaped from the rank soil in 
which such seed was cast. All this is true. But how 
did souls created to the image of God grow up in 
such a state ? They were robbed : robbed before 
they were born; robbed of their inheritance, and 
reared up in an education without Christianity. Let 
this be a warning to ourselves ! We are told that a 
child may be taught to read, and to write, and to 
spell, and to sum, without Christianity. Who denies 
it ? But what does this make of them ? To what do 
they grow up ? The formation of the will and heart 
and character, the formation of a man, is educa- 
tion, and not the reading, and the writing, and the 
spelling, and the summing. Physiology, astron- 
omy, chemistry, anatomy, and all other sciences 
with sounding names, and of Greek etymology, 
will not teach our children the respect, love, and 
obedience due to parents. They will not teach 
them modesty, which is the brightest ornament 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 331 

of woman, and renders the relation of man with 
his fellow-man harmonions and pleasant. They 
will not teach them industry and purity, which in- 
sure peace and happiness in the family circle. 
They will not teach them the fidelity which the es- 
poused owe to each other, nor the obligations con- 
tracted by parents towards their children, nor 
will they teach them to know, love, and serve 
God in this world, in order to be happy with Him 
forever in the next. 

For fifteen hundred years Christians served 
God and loved man, before, as yet, they received 
this cultivation of oar age ; and we, because we 
have it so profusely, are forgetting the deeper 
and diviner lessons. The tradition of Christian 
education in this country is, as yet, unbroken. It 
has, however, been greatly undermined. It will 
be completely broken if we Catholics do not 
strive, to the best of our power, to preserve it. 
We Catholics, therefore, believe that it is our 
most sacred duty to bring up our children in "the 
discipline and correction of the Lord." We hold 
that it is our most conscientious obligation to be- 
queath to our children the most valuable of all 
legacies — good religious impressions, and a sound 



332 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

reli<?ioiis education. We hold that reliorious cdu- 
cation is the most essential part of instruction. 

Now we know that religious education is not, 
and cannot, be given in our present school system. 
Our present system of common-school education 
either ignores religion altogether, or teaches prin- 
ciples which are false and dangerous ; and if it 
gives any religious education, it consists merely in 
certain vague, unmeaning generalities, and is often 
worse than no education at all. Instruction with- 
out religion, is like a ship without a compass. Ig- 
norance is, indeed, a great evil ; Ijut of the two 
evils, it is even better, in some respects, for our 
children to remain ignorant, than to acquire mere 
worldly knowledge without any religious training ; 
for without religion they grow up a burden to 
themselves, and a pest to society. 

Human nature is prone to evil ; and the risiug 
passions, especially in youth, need religious influ- 
ence to check them. There is a vast difference 
between teaching the child's head and forming his 
heart. Mere instruction in reading, writing, and 
arithmetic will never teach a young man to control 
his passions, and to practise virtue. Such instruc- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 333 

tioii may do for Pagans, but it Avill never do for 
Catholics. 

We can say that, so far as our Catholic children 
are concerned, the workings of our Public School 
system have proved, and do prove, highly detri- 
mental to their faith and morals. So strongly has 
the conviction of this beeu impressed upon the 
minds both of the pastors and parents, that mo«t 
strenuous efforts, and even enormous sacrifices 
have been made, and continue to be made, in 
order to establish and support Catholic parochial 
schools. In many cities of the Union there is, at 
the present moment, in daily attendance at these" 
schools, an average number of between eighteen 
and twenty thousand children. The annual ex- 
pense for the maintenance of these schools does 
not fall short of one hundred thousand dollars ; 
while the amount expended for the purchase of 
lots, and the erection of proper school buildings, 
etc., considerably exceeds a million. 

The Catholics of New York subscribed, in 1868, 
$132,000 for the support of their own school, and, 
besides, they had contributed a million and a quar- 
ter of dollars for the sites and the buildings of 
Catholic schools. 



334 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Nothing but the deepest sense of the many 
dangers to which the religious and moral prin- 
ciples of the children are exposed, could prompt 
Catholic parents to make such pecuniary sacrifices, 
or assume such onerous burdens ; for it has to be 
borne in mind that, while they are thus obliged, 
through conscientious motives, to support their 
own schools, they have, at the same time, to bear 
their share of the taxation imposed for the support 
of the Public Schools. 

All this is true ; yet I can scarcely refrain from 
expressing my surprise at the extremely abnormal 
lethargy manifested by so many Catholics, both in 
high and low places, regarding a duty, the chief 
one incumbent upon them as members of the fam- 
ily, as citizens, as Christians and as Catholics. 

Now the cause for the indifference existing 
among our people on the question of Catholic 
education, may be attributed to a fdse process of 
reasoning. They argue : it will cost money. True ; 
but it is not by Slate aid, or City aid, that the 
work of Catholic daily instruction and education 
in parochial schools is to be carried on. These 
schools are to be supported, as our cJiurches are, 
by the alms of the foithful. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 335 

The Catholics of other countries have their du- 
ties to perform, different, in part, from ours, 
but demanding great self-sacrifice. We, too, 
except we be "bastards, and not sons," must make 
our great sacrifices. The first, the most pressing, 
is that of supporting a good Catholic education. 
In neglecting Catholic education, we lose that 
which money cannot buy. Can we conceive of a 
parent, a Catholic parent, so cruel,' so depraved, 
and so God-forsaken as to sacrifice his child, both 
body and soul, and devote him to eternal destruc- 
tion, through eagerness to spare the paltry pence 
that a proper education might cost? It seems 
quite certain that if we wait for just appropriations 
from the State before we shoulder the burden 
ourselves, wait for it to compel us to accept of 
Catholic education, we shall find ourselves in a 
very unfit condition to appreciate the favor ; and 
from present indications, this generation, at least, 
is likely to pass away before such interest will be 
manifested in our behalf. 

Now we must be persuaded that if we allow one 
generation to be brought up in unbelief, and the 
course of tradition to be once interruiDted,- the 
followinsf generations will fall into a darkness and 



33G PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ignorance worse than that of Paganism ; living 
here without a God, and quitting this world with- 
out any consoling hope of a blessed immortality. 

So it proved, not long ago, with an unhappy 
wretch, the child of parents that had forgotten the 
law of their God, and seut her to one of the Pub- 
lic Schools in a town on the North River. She 
played the harlot, when she grew old enough, 
and theu sought to add to this the crime of a 
horrible 7nurder — the murder of the child that 
was of her own flesh and blood. In procuring its 
murder, she lost her own life. In the den of the 
monster-abortionist, and finding herself dying, 
one of the vile attendants now declares that she 
shrieked and begged for a Catholic priest. The 
Jew into whose murderous gripe she had put 
herself, found some means to quiet her cry, and 
she died without seeing a priest. God will keep 
His word ! He has said, "Because thou hast for- 
gotten the law of thy God, I will forget thy chil- 
dren ! " 

I do not say that Catholic parents are obliged, 
under the pain of mortal sin, to have any secular 
education given to their children. But I do say 
that they are forbidden, by the law of the Cath- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 337 

olic Church, to send their children to any schools 
where the Catholic religion is not ^practised and 
taught. 

If neglect to comply with the law of God and 
of His Church, neglect to receive the sacraments at 
certain times, and under certain circumstances, is 
a mortal sin, is it much less a sin to neglect the 
proper education of our youth, upon which, to a 
great extent, their entire future depends ? And if 
the sacraments are refused to persons persisting in 
sin, should not a sin of this great character be 
also considered in the conditions requisite for the 
worthy reception of the sacraments ? I hesitate not 
to pronounce this matter of education a matter of 
conscience, and it should be treated accordingly 
by those who have the charge of souls. We see 
ecclesiastical edifices of great magnitude, splendor, 
and expense, erected everywhere by Catholics, 
but for what purpose? To attract non-Catholics? 
Bosh! A Catholic can hear Mass in caverns, in 
catacombs, or under hedges, as they have often 
been obliofed to do ; but if we lose our children 
there will be none to hear it anywhere, nor any 
to offer the Holy Sacrifice, even in our most gor- 



22 



338 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

geous cathedrals. Where will be our Catholics? 
Scandal and disgrace will be the order of the day. 

I do not wish it to be understood here that I 
entertain any, even the least, doubt of the inde- 
fectibility of the Church, or of the faithful fulfil- 
ment of the promises of Christ ; for the Church 
will exist in spite of man. But again I say that 
Catholics are violating a most sacred duty in not 
providing facilities for Catholic education. 

This, O Catholics ! is what the money you 
are making so rapidly ought, in generous part, to 
be devoted to. So you will think, at a day fast 
coming, when your bodies will be buried sumptu- 
ously, your souls forgotten by the living, and the 
estates you have hoarded with so much industry 
shall have become, perhaps, the objects of dis- 
graceful law-suits among your heirs. 

Dear Catholics, let us cast off our lethargy ; let 
us be unitedly active in this matter ; let us dis- 
card the flimsy arguments of " ?«6em?" Catholics 
who would discourage the enterprise, regarding 
every such as our most dangerous foe. Let us 
make our voice heard and our actions felt, and 
brino" up our children in a manner creditable to 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



339 



ourselves, an honor and consolation to their 
parents, a blessing to society, worthy members 
of the Church of God, and candidates for the 



kingdom of heaven. 




CHAPTER XIV. 



ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. 




HERE are some who assert that " there 
is no sectarian teaching in the Public 
Schools, and consequently a Catholic 
may send his children to them without exposing 
them to any danger." Now even supposing 
there really were no sectarian teaching in the 
common schools, even then a Catholic parent can- 
not send his children to such a school without 
exposing them to the greatest danger. Those 
who approve of the Public Schools because noth- 
ing: sectarian is tau2:ht there, act like a certain 
husbandman who wished to transplant a fiue 
3'oung tree to a certain part of his garden. On 
examining the new place, however, he found that 
the ground was filled with poisonous ingredients, 
which would greatly endanger the life of the tree. 
He therefore transplanted the tree to a sandy hill, 
(340) 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 341 

where there were, indeed, no poisonous ingredients, 
but where there was also no nourishment for the tree. 
Now will any one assert that the young tree was 
not in danger of perishing in this new place ? 
And will any one assert that the faith and soul of 
a child are not in clanger of beino- ruined in those 
godless common schools ? Even if Protestantism 
is not taught there, infidelity is taught and prac- 
tised there, and infidelity is even worse than 
Protestantism. 

But is it really true that Protestantism is not 
taught in many of our Public Schools? This 
is unfortunately far from being the case. Napo- 
leon I. introduced the Public School system into 
France, in order, as he honestly declared, "to 
possess the means of controlling political and 
moral opinions." Puritans and Freemasons, in 
this country, have clearly the same end in view 
in upholding the present system of Public 
Schools. 

In the early days of New England, and even 
of several of the other American States, the 
Puritans always used the Public Schools as a 
powerful means of spreading their peculiar doc- 
trines. When they were stripped of this power 



342 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

by the liberal founders of American independence, 
they still struggled for many years to accomplish, 
by indirect means, the injustice which they dared 
not maintain openly. We all remember how the 
poor Catholic boys and girls of the Public Schools 
were harassed by colporteurs and proselytizers, 
Avho carried baskets filled, not with bread for the 
poor hungry children, no, but with oily tracts, 
cunningly devised to weaken, or even destroy, 
the religious faith of those poor little ones. In 
some schools even, Catholic children were urged 
and enticed to go to the sectarian Sunday-schools, 
and pictures, cakes, and sweetmeats were liberally 
promised, in order to induce them to go. Teach- 
ers were selected with special regard to their 
bitter hatred of the Catholic Church, and their 
zeal for " evangelical " propagandism. Some 
years ago, in New Orleans, when the school- 
board was composed of bigoted sectarians, many 
of them sectarian preachers, all the Catholic 
teachers, male and female, were turned out of 
the schools, merely because they were Catholics. 
And even if Catholic children are not always 
expressly taught doctrines opposed to their re- 
ligion, nevertheless the school-books which they 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 343 

use are, as I have said, frequently tainted with 
anti-Catholic prejudices and misrepresentations. 
Nothing can be more evident than the decidedly 
anti-Catholic spirit of English literature in all its 
departments. It has grown up, ever since Eng- 
land's apostasy, in an anti-Catholic soil, in an 
anti-Catholic atmosphere, and from an anti-Cath- 
olic stem. It is essentially anti-Catholic, and 
tends, wherever it comes in contact with Catholic 
feelings and principles, to sully, infect, and utterly 
corrupt them. Soujid knowledge, a sound head, 
strong faith, and great grace — all these combined 
— may indeed preserve one whom the necessity of 
his position may lead into un-Catholic schools ; 
but no one will deny that this anti-Catholic lit- 
erature must exercise a most baneful influence 
over all those who, wiithout sufficient preparation 
from nature or grace, plunge into it, in the pur- 
suit of amusement or knowledge. Protestant 
ideas will not make the Catholic turn Protestant, 
there is not much danger of that, but they will 
tend to make him an infidel ; they wdll destroy 
his principles without putting others in their 
place ; they will relax and deaden the whole 
spiritual man. 



344 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

In these schools, Catholic children are taught 
that the Catholic Church is the nursery of ignor- 
ance and vice ; they are taught that all the knowl- 
edge, civilization, and virtue which the world 
now possesses, are the offspring of tlie so-called 
"Reformation." They learn nothing of the true 
history of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Irehind, 
Austria, and the other Catholic countries of 
Europe ; they learn nothing of the true history of 
Mexico, and the various Catholic countries of 
North and South America. They never hear of 
the vast libraries of Catholic learning, the rich 
endowments of Catholic education all over the 
world, for ages ; they never hear of the countless 
miiversities, colleges, academies, and free schools 
established by the Catholic Church, and by Cath- 
olic governments, throughout Christendom. 
Where is the eoraraou school book whose author 
has manly honesty enough to acknowledge that 
even the famous universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge were founded by Catholics, and plun- 
dered from their lawful possessors by an apostate 
government ? 

Moreover, Catholic children are often singled 
out by their school-companions, and sometimes 



PUBLIC SCHOOL . EDUCATION. 345 

even by their teachers, Jis objects of ridicule. 
Now what is the result of all this training? The 
consequence is, that either the Catholic children 
become ashamed of their holy religion, and de- 
spise their parents, or, if they liave the courage 
to hold out, their tender minds are subject to 
numberless petty annoyances ; they must endure 
a species of martyrdom. This is no exaggeration ; 
I have it from good authority. Practically speak- 
ing, the present common school system is but a 
gigantic scheme for proselytism and for infidelity. 
Now we intend that our children shall be tauo;ht 
to love and revere their holy Church. We wish 
to teach them that that Church has been, for over 
eighteen hundred years, the faithful guardian of 
that very Bible of which Protestants prate so 
loudly, and which they dishonor so much. We 
wish our children to learn that the Catholic 
Church has been, in all ages, the friend and sup- 
porter of true liberty ; i.e., liberty united to order 
and justice. We wish them to know that the 
Catholic Church has ever been the jealous guar- 
dian of the sanctity of marriage ; that she has 
always defended it against brutal lust, and 
heathen divorce courts. We wish our children to 



346 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

know, moreover, thut the Catholic Church holds 
the sword of veugeauce uplifted above the heads 
of the child-murderers, aud the perpetrators of 
unnatural crimes. We wish our children, in fine, 
to regard the Church as the only hope of society, 
the only salvation of their country, the only 
means of preserving intact all the blessings of 
freedom. 

The Public Schools are not only seminaries of 
infidelity, they are, moreover, in many cases, 
hot-beds of immorality. In these schools every 
child is received, no matter how vicious or cor- 
rupt he or his parents may be. " One mangy 
sheep," as the homely proverb says, " infects the 
whole flock." So one corrupt child in a school 
is capable of corruptiug and ruining all the others. 
And, in fact, where have our young people 
learned the shameful habit of self-abuse, and 
many other foul, unnatural crimes, that are bring- 
ing so many thousands to an early grave? Ask 
those unhappy victims, ask our physicians 
throughout the country, and they will tell you 
that, in almost every instance, it was from the 
evil companions with whom they associated in the 
common schools. Ah I you will see, only on the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 347 

Day of Judgment, how many unnatural crimes 
have been taught and propagated, from generation 
to generation, in these very hot-beds of iniquity. 

"But, Father," some one will say, "what harm 
can there be in sending children to Public Schools? 
for many of the teachers are professing Christians, 
and exert a continual Christian influence." 

But many more are non-professors, and exert 
an anti-Christian influence. Go and visit those 
schools, and you will soon be able to tell the re- 
ligious status of the teachers in charge, by the 
general tone of the exercises. One presided over 
by a zealous Methodist resembles a Methodist 
Sunday-school, or conference meeting. Another, 
under the care of a " smart young man," delight- 
ing in love songs, boating songs, etc., has the 
general tone of a young folks' glee-club. In 
another, in which one of the professors is an 
atheist, it is a matter of common remark among 

the boys that Prof. said there was no God. 

In another, one of the teachers is overheard 
sneerinof at a child because she believes in our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and has a reverence for re- 
lictions things. 

What I have just said is true. I have it from 



348 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

good authority. It -is therefore no recommen- 
dation at all for the Public School system to say 
that many of the teachers are professing Chris- 
tians. Even the very fact that many of the 
teachers in the Public Schools are good Catholics, 
is no recommendation whatever for these schools, 
for it matters nothing, absolutely nothing, 
whether the teacher be CMtholic or not ; accord- 
ing to laiv, no teacher is allowed to explain a 
siu^jle dogma of Catholic faith. Now the dogmas 
of our holy faith have been revealed, and, in or- 
der to be known, they must be taught. Ordinarily 
speaking, education is necessary to learn and 
preserve the faith. The Catholics of Ireland, in- 
deed, by the special assistance of God, pre- 
served their holy faith, though they were not 
permitted, by a bigoted government, to receive 
the education they needed and desired. But in 
this country, where there is no such prohibition, 
where parents are free to send their children to 
Catholic schools, it is presumption in them, it is 
a rash defiance to the ordinary laws of God's 
providence, to neglect the daily systematic train- 
ing of the minds and hearts of their children, in 
conformity with Catholic discipline. Julian the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 349 

Apostate forbade Catholics to be educated in 
their holy faith, for he knew very well that there 
is no more certain means of destroying the faith 
than by not suflfering it to be taught. 

It is almost certain that wherever there are no 
Catholic schools, wherever the Catholic religion 
is not taught and practised in school, there the 
Catholic religion will practically die out, as soon 
as immigration from Catholic countries ceases. 

Bishop England has asserted that the Catholic 
Church loses more, in this country, by apostasy, 
than it gains by conversions. Archbishop Spald- 
ing, of Baltimore, asserted one day that, in one 
body of Methodist ministers, he observed seven 
or eight who were children of Catholics, and they 
were the smartest preachers among them. 

Neglected children of Catholic parents become 
the worst enemies of the Catholic Church. The 
young man who set tire to St, Augustine's Church, 
in Philadelphia, Pa., was a Catholic, and he 
ffloried in beins: able to burn his name out of the 
baptismal record. By a just punishment of God, 
these nesrlected Catholic children will become our 
persecutors. 

It is not sufficient to teach the Catechism in 



350 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

church or at home. No ! it is not the knowledge 
of the faith, but the daily practice of it, that pro- 
duces Catholic life. Nothinoj but the constant 
practice of our holy religion can train our youth 
to withstand the dangers of this age, and this 
country. It is not necessary to argue this point. 
Look at the tens of thousands of Catholics who 
never think of going to Mass on a week-day, and 
who often neglect it even on Sundays and holy 
days. Look at all those who never think of vis- 
iting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament ; who 
never go to confession more than once or twice a 
year, and sometimes not even that. Do they not 
prove, beyond a doubt, that the practical habit ot 
devotion was not taught thera in their youth ? 

Look, on the other hand, at those congregations 
who, in the tender, susceptible time of j^outh, 
w^ere in the habit of going to Mass every day be- 
fore the opening of the school. See how, when 
the bell rings, a goodly number of them find time, 
even on week-days, to assist at the most holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass. In such congregations 
there is indeed Catholic life. These pious Cath- 
olics carry the blessing of heaven with them 
Avherever they go. Amid all the cares and troubles 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 351 

of life they are gay aud cheerful, whilst others 
grumble and are sad. The religious doctrines 
and practices learned in youth, can seldom or 
never be blotted out. The question of Catholic 
schools is a question of making the country Cath- 
olic. If this means be neglected, all other means 
will avail but little. 

There are others, again, who assert "that the 
discussion of the education question should be put 
off for the present as yet, under the pretence that 
our adversaries are as yet too numerous, and that 
it is well for us to do nothing until their feelings 
are more in our favor." If we are to wait until it 
will please them to say that our claims are just, 
the day will never dawn when our rights shall be 
admitted ; darkness cannot coalesce with light, 
vice with virtue, or Belial with Christ. Will 
those who deny the Divine authority of the 
Church, assail her doctrines, aud seek her de- 
struction, ever cordially assist us in obtaining 
from our rulers a system of public instruction not 
dangerous or destructive to our faith? If we 
consent to defer the education question until the 
torrent of bigotry will be dried up, we shall be 
laughed at, and compared to the simple peasant 



352 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

f 

who determined to sit on the bank of a great river 
and not to attempt to pass it until all its waters 
should have rolled by ; or we shall be compared 
to the careless farmer who allows rank weeds to 
grow up in his garden, together with the good 
plants, till at last the good plants are dwarfed and 
smothered by the noxious weeds. In my opinion, 
our own policy with those in authority should be 
to insist on our rights in season and out of season ; 
and even when our claims may have been slighted 
or rejected, to continue our demands until every 
grievance shall be removed. 

We must make great exertions to obtain the 
object of our desires, and display great energy in 
our proceedings. We have numerous and active 
enemies to contend with — men as enthusiastic in 
a bad cause as the Pharisees of the Gospel, who 
compassed earth and sea to make a proselyte, but 
who cared very little for his moral progress, once 
they had secured his adherence to their views. 
However, we are not left alone in our struggle 
for religious education. With us we have the 
sympathy of the Catholics of the world, who are 
fighting the same battle as we ourselves, and 
cheer us on by their example. We have with us 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 353 

the blessing of the successor of St. Peter, who 
has repeatedly approved of the justice of our 
cause, and we have the sanction of Christ Him- 
self for the safety of the lambs of whose folds we 
are laboring. But omitting ail this, I believe that 
the most influential and distinguished members, 
lay and clerical, of the Anglican body, are with 
us, and that the principal liberal and enlightened 
Protestants of the Union wish us success. 

The State does not interfere with the free ex- 
ercise of our religion, neither should it interfere 
with our system of education ; — two measures of 
great importance, well calculated gradually to 
promote the public welfare of the country. If 
the State seriously wishes to check the growth of 
revolution, or to stem the growing torrent of 
communism and infidelity, they ought to discoun- 
tenance infidel institutions, and give schools to 
Catholics, in which they may uphold the true prin- 
ciples of authority, human and Divine, in accord- 
ance with the traditions of the Catholic Church of 
America, and thus strengthen the foundations not 
only of religion, but of society in general. 

Again, some will say, "I do not see why peo- 
ple can object so much to Public Schools ; I 

23 



354 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

myself went there, and- 1 think I am as good a 
Catholic as any one of those who were educated 
at Catholic schools and institntions." 

If you really have tried to be a good Catholic, 
if you have complied faithfully with all your re- 
ligious duties, you will have to avow that it is all 
owins: to the beneficial Catholic influence under 
which you were placed during the time of your 
scholarship, and afterwards. If you escaped the 
general contagion of unbelief and vice, remember 
that it is owing to a kind of miracle of Divine 
Protection. But what I have said iu reference to 
Public Schools shows sufficiently that such a pro- 
tection is extended to but few children — it is an 
exception to the ordinary course of Divine Prov- 
idence, and God is not bound to grant it to any 
one. 

A certain friend of mine — a man of great 
learning and experience — wrote to me one day, 
that "he himself had been, in his youth, sub- 
jected to coUego training ; that, be it by nature 
or by grace, or both combined, he resisted and 
escaped. But," he adds, "from my observation 
and experience, I would say it did require a mir- 
acle for Catholic youth to escape the damnable 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 355 

effects of a non-Catholic school education." I 
have had opportunities, in this line, that many a 
priest has never had. I assert that a Catholic 
boy of tender years, and perhaps careless train- 
ing, can be preserved from moral contamination, 
in public and mixed schools, by nothing less than 
a miracle. I will not chop logic with any one 
about it. It is a matter of fact. I therefore assert 
it as of ascertained result, that in most cases — 
especially in those cases where there are enough 
of Catholics together to have a school of their 
own — their frequenting a school without religion 
will land most of them in utter carelessness of 
their religion. 

Grace does not destroy nature. And it is na- 
ture that — 

"... as the twig is bent, the tree inclines." 

But let me ask you. How can you think that you 
are as good a Catholic as others ; you who object 
to the teaching of the Church, to the persuasion 
of all sensible men? Indeed, your language be- 
trays you. Your very language convinces me 
still more of the necessity of having Catholic 
schools where our children learn the language and 



356 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

imbibe the spirit of their spiritual mother — the 
Catholic Church. The Public Schools are none 
the better for your having frequented them. Let 
ns suppose a father wishes to send his children 
across the ocean. Now he knows for certain that 
the vessel which is about to leave for the old coun- 
try will be wrecked ; he also knows that a few of 
the passengers will be saved, as it were, by a mir- 
acle, but he knows not who they are. Will he 
send his children by that vessel ? 

Now the Public Schools are like a large vessel. 
The greater part of those who have embarked in 
it have suffered shipwreck in their faith and good 
morals. What father, then, will be mad enough 
to send his children by this vessel, across the 
ocean of time, to their heavenly fatherland? 

There are others, again, who assert " that we 
must not attempt to have Catholic schools until 
we can afford to conduct them so as to compete 
with the Public Schools." 

The point in question is godless schools, which 
are condemned on account of being infidel in 
principle. Even with all their faults, our schools 
are, it must be conceded, not infidel, but Chris- 
tian schools. We are at liberty, there, to teach 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 357 

our children our holy religion whenever we wish. 
We can give them good books, and bring them up 
in a religious atmosphere. If we do for the es- 
tablishment and organization of Catholic schools 
what we can, God will not hold us responsible for 
the loss of those of our children who did not 
profit by their religious education, while, on the 
contrary, we remain accountable to God for those 
who, for want of a Catholic education, suffer ship- 
wreck in their faith and morals, and are lost for- 
ever. In the sight of God, the above excuse will 
avail us nothing. 

Some, even most of our schools, may have been 
more or less defective in the beginning. Well, 
what was the Church at the time of the Apostles? 
There were then no gorgeous cathedrals as now- 
adays. The Christians were instructed and sancti- 
fied in the Catacombs, and in poor private dwellings. 
So, in a country like ours, the kingdom of heaven 
is compared to a mustard seed. Churches and 
schools are insignificant in the beginning ; but, by 
degrees, more life and splendor is infused into 
them, and they grow up to perfection. 

We honor and venerate the Apostles as the cor- 
ner-stones of Christianity. Happy, thrice happy, 



358 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

those pastors who lay solid foiiiidations for future 
Catholic life by establishing nurseries — Catholic 
schools — for its maintenance and propagation. 
Their reward will be like unto that of the Apos- 
tles. Our successors will bring our feeble begin- 
nings to perfection. This is the natural course of 
things. We may not have the happiness to wit- 
ness a plentiful harvest from the seed that we have 
sown with so much toil and labor ; but we should 
nevertheless bear in mind that those bishops and 
priests who have the happiness of laying the 
foundations of future Catholic life in our country, 
resemble our Lord Jesus Christ, Who suffered His 
Apostles to perform even greater miracles than 
He Himself had wrought. 

I know the above objection is more frequently 
made in the New England States than anywhere 
else. Now it is a well-known fact that the Yan- 
kee race is fast dying out. They have either no 
children at all, or only one or two. Hence it is 
that the larger portion of the Public School chil- 
dren are the children of Catholic parents. These 
States foresee that were the Catholic children to 
leave their schools, their Public School buildings 
would soon be empty, and stand there as eloquent 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 359 

monuments to tell on the folly of the States for 
having erected them. Now in order to keep the 
Catholic children at their schools, and thus keep 
up their fine lucrative establishments, they have, 
in several places, taken in the Catholic priests as 
members of the School Boards. Truly, " the 
children of this world are wiser in their gener- 
ation than the children of light." These priests, 
by accepting the honor ! of membership ! of the 
School Board, give, thereby, at least a tacit appro- 
bation of the godless Public Schools. Thus the 
State, by conferring this privilege ! throws dust 
into the eyes of the people. It is, therefore, 
quite evident that were this tacit approbation of 
the Catholic clergy withdrawn, were they to erect 
Catholic schools, the godless schools would soon 
be emptied and suspended, and there would 
hardly be other but Catholic schools. The Cath- 
olic teachers of the Public Schools would follow 
our/children, and would' be too happy in teaching 
on Catholic ground, and according to Catholic 
principles. 

Should a sufficient number of children be left 
for the Public Schools, this would be no reason 
whatever to fear that our Catholic schools could 



360 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

not compete Avith the PiiWic Schools ; for, gener- 
ally speaking, Catholic children are more talented 
than those of Protestants or infidels. The reason 
of this is easily to be seen : they have been bap- 
tized ; the veil of sin has been raised from their 
souls, and the Catholic life which they lead makes 
their minds brighter, more quick to perceive, and 
to understand what is difficult. About six months 
ago the priests of St. James's Church, in New 
York, exhorted the parents to take their children 
out of the Public Schools, and send them to Cath- 
olic schools. What happened ? Three of the 
Public School teachers came and complained to the 
priests that the brightest gems of their school had 
left, and that, on that account, they could not 
have the exhibition which they intended soon to 
give. A short time ago, at an exhibition in Bos- 
ton, it was a Catholic young lady that took the 
prize medal. 

And after all, the principal object for getting up 
Catholic schools is not to show off their superiority 
to, or their equality with, infidel schools — this is 
not even a secondary end — "we want Catholic 
schools to preserve onr Catholic religion, our 
Catholic traditions, our Catholic spirit and morals ; 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 361 

we want them to raise in them children for heaven, 
not for hell ; children for God, not for the devil ; 
children for a happy eternity, not for everlasting 
damnation. That's all. Hence Jesus Christ, on the 
Day of Judgment, will not ask parents and pastors 
of souls whether their schools could compete with 
infidel schools, but whether they did all in their 
power to secure the eternal welfare of their chil- 
dren by a good Catholic education. 

Father John de Starchia, Provincial of the 
Friars Minor, made regulations more favorable to 
worldly science than to the spirit of piety and re- 
ligion, attaching, as he did, more importance to 
the education of the mind than to that of the 
heart. St. Francis of Assisium upbraided him 
for it, but in vain. So the great servant of God 
cursed the Provincial, and deposed him at the en- 
suing chapter. The saint was entreated, by some 
of his brethren in religion, to withdraw this curse 
from the Provincial, a learned noble man, and to 
give him his blessing. But neither the learning 
nor the noble extraction of the Provincial could 
prevail upon St. Francis to comply with their re- 
quest. "I cannot," said he, "bless him whom the 
Lord has cursed " — a dreadful reply, which soon 



362 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

after was verified. This unfortunate man died 
exclaiming': "I am damned and cursed for all 
eternity ! " Some frightful circumstances which 
followed after his death, confirmed his awful pre- 
diction. (Life of St. Francis of Assisium.) 
Such a malediction should strike terror into the 
hearts of all those who attach more importance to 
the cultivation of the mind than tothatof the heart, 
and on that account prefer godless Public Schools 
to Catholic schools. 

Again, one may object : "The religious develop- 
ment does not necessarily suppose a literary devel- 
opment too. A person may be illiterate, and yet 
learned, in the science of the saints, and a man 
may be learned in science, and ignorant of his duty 
towards God and his fellow-creatures. There were, 
are, and will be members of the Catholic Church, 
who, ignorant of science, of book-learning, did not 
become infidels, but exhibited a practical faith 
throughout life, and died in the odor of sanctity. 
Divine faith does not require as a companion, in 
the individual Catholic, a knowledge of profane 
literature, but humility, compunction, self-denial, 
and a contempt of the world. Schools are there- 
fore not absolutely necessary for our children." 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 363 

As far as the little profit is concerned that 
mere book-Iearninof does towards enabling: the 
masses of mankind to accomplish .the great end 
of their being — the salvation of their souls — I 
am disposed to go all lengths with him in this. 
But he and I must both acknowledge that the 
whole current of Catholic influence and practice 
has set in favor of book-learning and of schools. 
The Popes have been constant in this line, and 
Catholic Bishops have acted in the same direc- 
tion. 

But grant that school learning is of little ac- 
count. Something even harder is said of riches. 
There is no woe on those that spend their time on 
book-learning ; there is a " woe to them that are 
rich"! Nevertheless, Catholics, as others, strive 
to acquire wealth. So that they do it honestly, 
the Catholic Church does not condemn it. Book 
education, like riches, is a means of advancement 
in the world. The instructed are, on the whole, 
of ofreater consideration than the uninstructed. 
The business of the Catholic Church is to see that 
thi^ source of power is not turned to the destruc- 
tion of those that acquire it. 

Besides, I fully agree that, as a universal 



364 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

proposition, school-learning, or book-learning, is 
not necessary to the salvation of souls — which is 
the great end of human life. So far, the objection 
is correct in saying that Catholic schools are not, 
as a universal proposition, necessary for Catholics. 

But, in liac providentia; in a condition in 
which Catholics, like others, are striving that 
their children may obtain the mastery, 6oo^'-learn- 
ing is, like money, a grand element of strength 
and of consideration. This is what those in care 
of souls must look to. Book-learning and 
wealth are neither of them against faith. They 
are simple elements of power — physical par- 
aphernalia. The great thing is, how they may 
be used! 

Again mark ! I do not say that it is of strict 
oblisration for Catholics to send their children to 
any school. For the comparatively few that have 
at once the means and the disposition, I hold 
that there is no education like that received under 
the parental roof. There is the true home of 
sturdy independence in men, and of affectionate 
and chaste devotion in women. Moreover, it is a 
great good fortune for conscientious parents, 
with growing childhood around them, to have the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 365 

charge and responsibility of these children. It is 
education for parents as well as children. It 
brings the strong element of parental affection, in 
aid of all other motives for living a good life, as 
an example to beloved young ones. We mourn 
that Catholics, at least, so seldom, when they 
have the means, make their own houses the 
schools for their own children. But this can be 
done by few, comparatively. Nor can select and 
private schools, with few scholars, and those 
picked ones, be had. As a matter of fact, the 
children of most Catholics must receive whatever 
school instruction they get, in large and general 
schools. 

God may, by a miracle, preserve the faith in a 
whole nation, as He really did in the Irish, be- 
cause they were forbidden to use the ordinary 
means whereby Catholics bring up their offspring 
in the faith. But, when Irish men and women 
come to this country, where there is no prohibition 
of their having Catholic schools, and having their 
children educated in them, it is, as I have said, a 
rash defiance of the ordinary laws of God's Prov- 
idence, to neglect the daily and systematic train- 



36G PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

ing of the intellects of their children in conformity 
with Catholic discipline. 

There are some who say "they pay taxes, and 
they, of course, would like to profit as well as 
others by their contribution to the school fund." 
It is nothing but right that they should ; but they 
cannot, and ought not, to do so upon the con- 
ditions imposed on them. The Christians of the 
first centuries paid taxes to the Roman Empire, 
for they had been taught by their Divine Master 
to render unto Coesar what belonged to Caesar ; but 
rather than refuse to render to God what belonged 
to God, rather than give up their faith, or expose 
themselves to the danger of losing it, they went 
to the lions. 

At a later period, the Irish, so much taunted for 
their ignorance in reading and writing, paid heavy 
taxes to the British Government, and, be it said 
to their honor, they, for a time, deprived them- 
selves of the most useful knowledge, not on ac- 
count of their opposition to schools, but because 
when the teachers of their choice were hunted 
down by government officials, and shot like wild 
beasts, if caught in the act of teaching, they re- 
fused to go to the State schools, which they could 



PUBLIC SCPIOOL EDUCATION. 367 

not attend without betraying the faith of their an- 
cestors. 

We also pay taxes, and will continue to do so 
in submission to a most unjust law ; but, thanks 
be to God ! we are at liberty to seek legal 
redress, and our exertions should increase until 
it is obtained by those very means which were 
used to establish godless schools, viz. : the press, 
lecturing, preaching, etc., to form, again, public 
opinion in favor of Christian schools, and electing 
such men to legislatures as are down upon godless 
schools, and advocate the establishment of Chris- 
tian schools for the well-being of our country. 
In the meantime, in order to preserve the true 
faith,*and save the world from the deadly indif- 
ference into which it is falling, Catholic schools 
must be got up, and kept up, at any cost. 

Finally, there are some of the clergy who say, 
"It is so much trouble to get up schools, and to 
support them — where to get the teachers, and the 
money to pay them." True, it is troublesome to 
establish schools ; but we have to live on trou- 
bles. Our very troubles become our ladder to 
heaven, if borne for the sake of elesus Christ. 
If we do not wish to undero:o troubles and trials 



368 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of every kind for the sake of Jesus, and for the 
salvation of those for whom He shed His heart's 
blood, we should not have become priests. Our 
right and claim to heaven can be established only 
by following our Lord, and by carrying our cross 
after Him. 

As to the fear of not getting money for building 
and supporting schools, let us look at those mag- 
uificent school-buildings in every city and town 
of the country. Where did those priests who 
built them get the money ? It was no angel from 
heaven that brought it. The parents of the chil- 
dren that are educated in these schools gave it. 
Let us rest assured that money will not be want- 
ing to a priest if his zeal is great enough to show 
to parents the absolute necessity of Catholic 
schools, in order to save their children from be- 
coming scourges for society in this life, and from 
becomins: victims of hell in the next. Let a 
priest unite great charity and affection for chil- 
dren, and he will at once lay hold on the hearts 
and money of their parents. Those parents who 
have no money to offer, will most willingly offer 
their labor for so noble a work. This has been 
our experience for years in every place where we 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 369 

took charge of a congregation. Let every child 
— the poor excepted — pay from thirty to forty 
cents a month. The money thus collected will 
cover all the expenses for teachers, and for the 
books of the poor children. Parents are but too 
happy to have a priest who takes a lively interest 
in the temporal and eternal happiness of their 
children. For the promotion of this happiness, 
parents will give to the priest the last cent they 
have got — nay, their own hearts' blood, if nec- 
essary. This we have witnessed many times. 
We have established schools in country places, 
where the people made very little money ; yet 
they were but too happy to give us money for the 
building and support of schools. There are hun- 
dreds of priests who can say the same of them- 
selves. And should there be refractory characters 
who do not care about a good Catholic education, 
let us refuse them absolution, as penitents who are 
not disposed for the worthy reception of the sac- 
raments. We cannot scruple to do this. 

The voice of common sense, the voice of sad 
experience, the voice of Catholic bishops, and 
especially the voice of the Holy Father, is raised 
against, and condemns, the Public School system 

24 



370 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

as a huge humbug, injuring, uot promoting, per- 
sonal virtue and good citizenshiji, and as being 
most pernicious to Catholic faith, and life, and all 
good morals. A pastor, therefore, cannot main- 
tain the contrary opinion without incurring great 
guilt before God and the Church. He cannot 
allow parents to send their children to such 
schools of infidelity and immorality. He cannot 
give them absolution, and say, " Innocens sum!" 
For he must know and understand that parents 
are bound before the Almighty to raise their chil- 
dren good Catholics, to plant in their hearts the 
seed of godliness and parental obedience ; this 
was their promise at the baptismal font. They 
are bound in conscience to redeem this promise ; 
but they cannot do this, so long as their children 
so to the Public Schools ; for it must be conceded 
that children attending these godless Public 
Schools are in proximate occasion of sin, and this 
occasion is in esse for them. This being so, par- 
ents cannot receive absolution unless they remove 
from their children this occasion of sin. "I do 
uot see," says the Archbishop of Cincinnati — and 
many other bishops say the same — "I do not see 
how parents can be absolved, if they are not dis- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 371 

posed to support Catholic schools, and send their 
children thereto." 

"Duty compels us" — says the Bishop of Vin- 
cennes, Ind., in his Pastoral Letter of 1872 — 
" duty compels us to instruct the pastors of our 
churches to refuse absolution to parents who^ hav- 
ing the facilities and means of educating their 
children in a Christian manner, do, from worldly 
motives, expose them to the danger of losing 
their faith. This measure, however, being very 
rigorous, we intend that it shall be recurred to in 
extreme cases only, and when all means of per- 
suasion have been exhausted." 

As for teachers, there are everywhere many 
young ladies who have received a splendid edu- 
cation, and who would feel but too happy to be- 
come teachers for our children, and bring thein up 
in such a manner as to fit them for business in 
this life, and for heaven hereafter. 

But why so many objections? It was in the 
following manner that two bishops silenced all 
such objections, and made Catholic schools spring 
up all over their dioceses in a short time : they 
told their priests "that, were they not to have 
schools within a certain limited time, they would 



372 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

dismiss them from their dioceses ; and that, should 
their parishioners not be willing to provide the 
means for establishing and supporting Catholic 
schools, they would withdraw from them their 
priests." This looks like believing in the Cath- 
olic Church. From the moment that the priests 
saw this determination of their bishop — the peo- 
ple were overjoyed at it — Oailiolic schools, and, 
with them, Catholic life, sprang up, and diffused 
itself at once all over the two dioceses. 

Let, then, everyone of our clerg^'^take courage, 
and the Lord will dispose the hearts of the rich 
and the poor in his favor ; — the hearts of the rich 
to provide him with means, the hearts of the poor 
to aid him, by their prayers, in the promotion of 
so noble a work as is the establishment of good 
Catholic schools. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCA- 
TION OF OUR CHILDREN. 




|T is a matter of fact that the Protestant 
movement was chiefly directed against 
the Papacy, and that it involved a hun- 
dred years of so-called religious wars. This 
movement gave the princes Avho took the side of 
the Church an opportunity, of which they were 
not slow to avail themselves, to extend and con- 
solidate their power over their Catholic subjects, 
and to establish in their dominions monarchical 
absolutism, or what we may choose to call modern 
Csesarism. 

Under plea of serving religion, they extended 

their power over matters which had hitherto either 

been left free, or subject only to the jurisdiction 

of the spiritual authority. They were defenders 

(373) 



374 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of the faith against armed heretics ; and they pre- 
tended that this excess of power was necessary, 
in order to succeed in their undertaking. A habit 
of depending on them as the external defenders 
of religion and her altars, of the freedom of con- 
science, and of the Catholic civilization itself, was 
generated ; the king took the place in the thoughts 
and affections of the people that was due to the 
Soverign Pontiff, and by giving the direction to 
the schools and universities in all things not abso- 
lutely of faith, they gradually became the lords 
of men's minds as well as bodies. In France, 
Spain, Portugal, and a large part of Italy, all 
through the seventeenth century, the youth were 
trained in the maxim — the Prince is the State, 
and his pleasure is law. Bossuet, in his politics, 
did only faithfully express the political sentiments 
and convictions of his age, shared by the great 
body of Catholics as well as of non-Catholics. 
Rational liberty had few defenders, and they were 
excluded, like Fenelon, from the Court. The 
politics of Philip II. of Spain, of Richelieu, Maz- 
arin, and Louis XIV. in France, which were the 
politics of Catholic Europe, scarcely opposed by 
any one, except by the Popes, through the greater 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 375 

part of the sixteenth and the whole of the seven- 
teenth centuries, tended directly to enslave the 
people, and to restrict the freedom and influence 
of the Church. 

Trained under despotic influences by the skilful 
hand of despotism, extending to all matters not 
absolutely of the sanctuary, and sometimes daring, 
with sacrilegious foot, to invade the sanctuary it- 
self, the people were gradually formed interiorly, 
as well as exteriorly, to the purposes of the des- 
pot. They grew up with the habits and beliefs 
which Caesar ism, when not resisted, is sure to 
generate. 

The clergy, sympathizing, as is the case with 
every national clergy, with the sentiments of their 
age and nation in all things not strictly of faith, 
had little disposition to labor to keep alive the 
spirit of freedom in the hearts of the people, and 
Avould not have been permitted to do it, even if 
they had been so disposed. Schools were sus- 
tained, but, affected by the prevailing despotism, 
education declined ; free thought was prohibited ; 
and it is hard to find a literature tamer, less orig- 
inal and living, than that of Catholic Europe all 



376 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

through the eighteenth century, down almost to 
our own tunes. 

As the Catholic religion was professedly patron- 
ized by the sovereigns, the Church, in superficial 
minds, seemed to sanction the prevailing Coesar- 
ism. The clergy, because they preached peace, 
and thousrht to fulfil their mission without dis- 
turbing the State, came, for the first time in his- 
tory, to be regarded as the chief supporters of the 
despot. 

They who retained some reminiscences of the 
liberties once enjoyed by Catholic Europe, and 
the noble principles of freedom, asserted in the 
Middle Ages by the monks in their cells, and the 
most eminent Doctors of the Church from their 
chairs, became alienated from Catholicity in pro- 
portion as they cherished the spirit of resistance, 
and, unhappily, imbibed the fatal conviction that 
to overthrow the despot's throne they must break 
down the altar. Rightly interpreted, the old 
French Revolution, although bitterly anti-Cath- 
olic and infidel, was not so much hatred of relig- 
ion, and impatience of her salutary restraints, as 
the indignant uprising of a misgoverned j^eople 
against a civil despotism that affected injuriously 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 377 

all orders, ranks and conditions of society. The 
sovereigns had taken good care that an attack on 
them should involve an attack on religion, and to 
have it deeply impressed on their subjects that re- 
sistance to them was rebellion against God. The 
priest, who should have labored publicly to correct 
the issue made up by the sovereigns in accord with 
imbelievers, would have promoted sedition, and 
done more harm than good; besides, he would 
kave been at once reduced to silence, in some one 
of the many ways despotism has usually at its 
command. 

The horrors of the French Revolution, the uni- 
versal breaking up of society it involved, the per- 
secution of the Church and of her clergy, and 
her religious, which it shamelessly introduced in 
the name of liberty, the ruthless war it waged 
upon religion, virtue, all that wise and good men 
hold sacred, not unnaturally, to say the least, 
tended to create in the minds of the clergy and 
the people, who remained firm in their faith, and 
justly regarded religion as the first want of man 
and society, a deeper distrust of the practicability 
of liberty, and a deeper horror of all movements 
attempted in its name. This, again, as naturally 



378 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

tended to alienate the party clamoring for political 
and social reform still more from Catholicity ; 
which, in its tnrn, has reacted with new force on 
the Catholic party, and made them still more de- 
termined in their anti-liberal convictions and 
efforts. These tendencies, on both sides, have 
been aggravated by the European revolutions and 
repressions, till now almost everywhere the lines 
are well defined, and the so-called Liberals are, 
almost to a man, bitterly anti-Catholic, and tlfe 
sovereigns seem to have succeeded in forcing the 
issue : The Church and Cresarism, or Liberty and 
Infidelity. 

Certainly, as religion is of the highest necessity 
to man and society, infinitely more important than 
political freedom and social well-being, I am un- 
able to conceive how the Catholic party, under the 
circumstances, could well have acted differently. 
Their error was in their want of vigilance and 
sagacity in the beginning, in suffering the political 
Cassarism to revive and consolidate itself in the 
State, or the sovereigns, in the outset, to force 
upon the Catholic world so false an issue, or to 
place them in so unnatural and so embarrassing a 
position. The truth is, the Catholic party, yield- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 379 

ing to the sovereigns, lost, to some extent, for the 
eighteenth century, the control of the mincl of the 
age, and failed to lead its intelligence — they who 
should always be first and foremost in every de- 
partment of human thought and activity. 

That the struggles in Europe have an influence 
on the Catholic clergy and laity in this country, 
cannot be denied. As yet many of our Catholics, 
whether foreign-born or native-born, seem scarcely 
to realize the fact that they are freemen, and pos- 
sess, in this land of freedom, equal rights with 
their fellow-citizens of every other denomination. 
They have so long been an oppressed people, that 
their freedom here seems hardly real. And un- 
happily even some of the clergy seem to be too 
timid and backward in defending boldly and pub- 
licly those doctrines of our holy faith which are 
opposed to the popular errors of our infidel age. 
So far we have, thank God, been enjoying full 
religious liberty ; but it will depend mainly on the 
Catholic clergy to maintain this liberty, by up- 
holding the religious principles upon which all 
true liberty is based. In order to maintain these 
principles they must defend liberty of education 
to the utmost, and must not cease to remind the 



380 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

State that it is its solemn duty to govern a free 
Christian people in a Christian manner, and ac- 
cording to the Constitution of the Republic ; and 
that, under no pretence whatever, can it violate 
this Constitution in so vital a point as is the edu- 
cation of our children ; and that it is a constant 
and crying injustice to tax Catholics for the sup- 
port of godless schools. We must not yield any 
of our constitutional rights ; if we do, the Church 
will be implicated, by degrees, in the same kind 
of struofijle which is now becoming so serious in 
Europe. 

Now in order to meet with success, let us take 
up the press. In our country, unfortunately, an 
unchristian press is guaranteed the fullest liberty, 
and the evils that flow from that liberty are widely 
spread. It is certain that this unrestricted free- 
dom of the press, which every one is ready to 
abuse, and which allows every one to constitute 
himself a teacher of the public, can be defended 
neither on principles of reason nor of faith. It 
becomes, therefore, not only our privilege, but 
our solemn duty, to combat the unchristian by a 
really Christian press — a matter on which the 
Church, and the Head of the Church, have spoken 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 381 

iu an unmistakable manner. If Catholics have 
not thorough Catholic papers, they will take peri- 
odicals which are not Catholic. To have even 
one good paper, through which we can give ex- 
pression to our thoughts, is a great blessing and a 
great gain ; but that certainl}^ does not enable us 
to give our voice that weight in the questions of 
the day to which it is entitled. A great deal has, 
of late years, been done for the establishment of 
Catholic journals, and much good has been accom- 
plished by them. But far more might have been 
done had the Catholic press received more support 
both from the clergy and laity. It is so easy for 
the clergy to give this support by encouraging the 
Catholics in general, but especially the members of 
so many excellent Catholic associations, to subscribe 
to such perioclicals. One word from the priest on 
the usefulness of having a good Catholic paper and 
magazine in the family, will induce a hundred 
times more Catholics to become subscribers, than 
the longest appeal of a newspaper editor. The 
stronger the Catholic press becomes, the more the 
attention of the nation is called to it, the more 
shall we secure their respect for us and our relig- 
ion. Yes, it is absolutely necessary in a country 



382 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

like ours, where religious tracts from Protestant 
societies, and pamphlets and periodicals of the 
most obscene character, are flying over the laud 
like leaves before the autumn wind, that Catholic 
journals should be called into existence on every 
hand, and that no sacrifice should be spared to do 
so, and to encourage those already in existence. 
If the clergy only take the matter in hand, they 
will find those willing and able to carry the matter 
through. Let us use our talents, as God shall 
grant us grace and ability, that we may, by so 
powerful a moans as is the press, disseminate the 
principles of truth, in order to contend with error. 
The light of truth is far more calculated to dispel 
the darkness of error, than the light of the sun is 
to disperse the darkness of the night. Why are 
there so many talents lying idle among us? Why 
so many pens that move not, when they should be 
burniuo; with love for God, and for the welfare of 
their fellow-men ? Why so many tongues that are 
ever silent, when they might, day after day, preach 
the good tidings of the Gospel of Christ? Let us 
rest assured God has given to us, to every man his 
vocation, his sphere of action and holy influence, 
wherein he can proclaim to those around him tliat 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 383 

faith which maketh wise unto salvation. Let us not 
be cowards, — let us show as much determination 
and courage, let us sacrifice as much for the prop- 
agation of truth as its enemies do for the dissem- 
ination of error ; bearing, however, always in mind 
that the manner in which we must combat error 
ought to be charitable ; for otherwise it is not cal- 
culated to command respect, and make a salutary 
impression. It is thus that our fellow-citizens of 
other denominations will come to understand that 
we appreciate our liberty, and know how to use it 
for the benefit of the public. 

But all rights and liberties avail nothing, in the 
end, if Catholic education itself is not what it 
ousfht to be. And the great battle that is wao^- 

o O O 

ing, that education may not be deprived of its 
Christian character, can be won by us only on con- 
dition that teachers, and educators themselves, as 
well as parents and the clergy, understand pre- 
cisely the full bearing of the questron. 

' To-day, more than ever, we need a thorough 
Catholic education. The enemies of our religion 
are now making war upon its dogmas more gener- 
ally and craftily than at any former period. Their 
attacks, for being wily and concealed, are all the 



384 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

more pernicious. The impious rage of a Vol- 
taire, or tlie "solemn sneer" of a Gibbon, would 
be less dangerous than this insidious warfare. 
They disguise their designs under the appearance 
of devotion to progressive ideas, and hatred of 
superstition and intolerance, all tlie better in instil 
the slow but deadly poison. By honeyed words, a 
studied candor, a dazzle of erudition, they have 
spread their "gossamer nets of seduction" over 
the world. The press teems with books and jour- 
nals in which doctrines subversive of religion and 
morality are so elegantly set forth, that the un- 
guarded reader is very apt to be deceived by the 
fascination of false charms, and to mistake a most 
hideous and dangerous object for the verj'- type of 
beauty. The serpent stealthily glides under the 
silken verdure of a polished style. Nothing is 
omitted. The passions are fed, and the morbid 
sensibilities pandered to ; iSrmness in the cause 
of truth or virtae is called obstinacy ; and strength 
of soul, a refractory blindness. The bases of 
morality are sapped in the name of liberty ; the 
discipline of the Church, when not branded as 
sheer " mummery," is held up as hostile to per- 
sonal freedom ; and her dogmas, with one or two 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 385 

exceptions, are treated as opinions which may be 
received or rejected with like indifference. 

Nor is this irreligious tendency confined to lit- 
erary publications ; it finds numerous and power- 
ful advocates in men of scientific pursuits, who 
strive to make the worse appear the better cause. 
The chemist has never found in his crucible that 
intangible something which men call spirit; so, in 
the name of science, he pronounces it a myth. 
The anatomist has dissected the human frame ; 
but, failing to meet the immaterial substance — 
the soul — he denies its existence. The physicist 
has weighed the conflicting theories of his prede- 
cessors in the scale of criticism, and finally de- 
cides that bodies are nothing more than the acci- 
dental assemblage of atoms, and rejects the very 
idea of a Creator. The geologist, after investi- 
gating the secrets of the earth, triumphantly tells 
us that he has accumulated an overwhelming mass 
of facts to refute the biblical cosmogony, and thus 
subvert the authority of the inspired record. The 
astronomer flatters himself that he has discovered 
natural and necessary laws, which do away with 
the necessity of admitting that a Divine Hand 
once launched the heavenly bodies into space, and 
25 



386 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

still guides them in their courses ; the stenog- 
rapher has studied the peculiarities of the races ; 
he has met with widely-different conformations, 
and believes himself sufficiently authorized to 
deny the unity of the human family ; in a word, 
they conclude that nothing exists but matter, that 
God is a myth, and the soul " the dream of a 
dream." 

Thus do men attack these sacred truths, which 
cannot be shaken without greatly injuring, and 
finally destroying, the social edifice. 

Now, when we see the snares so cunningly laid 
to entrap our youth, can we wonder that so many 
of our Catholic young men, even after they have 
been educated at Catholic colleges, are caught in 
them, and fall into infidelity? A short time ago, 
a gentleman of great learning, and a celebrated 
convert to our Church, told me that he had the 
greatest trouble to keep his son from falling into 
infidelity, though he was naturally inclined to 
13iety. He said that he had him educated at one 
of the best colleges in the country, and that he 
felt surprised at the fact that so many of the 
young men educated there had become infidels. 
" I cannot," he said, " account for this, otherwise 



PUBLIC SCflOOL EDUCATION. 387 

than by presuming that the religious training there 
is not solid enough ; that the heathen world is too 
much read and studied ; that principles somewhat 
too lax are in voo-ue ; that the truths of our relis;- 
ion are taught too superficially ; that the princi- 
ples which underlie the dogmas are not sufficiently 
explained, inculcated, and impressed upon the 
minds of the young men, and that their educators 
fail in giving them a correct idea of the spirit and 
essence of our religion, which is based on divine 
revelation, and invested in a Body divinely com- 
missioned to teach all men, authoritatively and 
infallibly, all its sacred and immutable truths — 
truths which we are consequently bound in con- 
science to receive without hesitation. 

" Now what I have said of certain colleges ap- 
plies also, unhappily, to many of our female acad- 
emies ; they are by no means what they should be, 
according to the spirit of the Church ; they con- 
form too much to the spirit of the world ; they 
have too man}'- human considerations ; they make 
too many allowances for Protestant pupils at the 
expense of the Catholic spirit and training of our 
young Catholic ladies ; they yield too much to the 
spirit of the age ; in a word, they attend more to 



388 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the intellectual than to the spiritual culture of 
their pupils. 

" But what is even more surprising than all this 
is, that some of our Catholic clergy, and among 
them some even of those who should be first and 
foremost in fighting for sound religious principles, 
and seeing that our youth are carefully brought 
up in them, are too much inclined to yield to the 
godless spirit of the age — to the so-called liberal 
views on Catholic education, which have been 
clearly and solemnly condemned by the Holy See. 
They tell us poor people in the world, that, if we 
are (Careless in bringing up our children as good 
Catholics, we are worse than heathens, and have 
denied our faith ! that, if our children are lost 
through our neglect, we also shall be lost. I 
would like to know whether God will show Him- 
self more merciful to those of our clergy who 
take so little interest in the religious instruction 
of our youth ; who make little or no exertions to 
establish Catholic schools, where we could have 
our children properly educated ; who, Avhen they 
condescend to instruct them, do so in bombastic 
language, in scholastic terms which the poor chil- 
dren cannot understand, taking no pains to give 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 389 

their instructions in plain words, and in a manner 
attractive for children. 

"As the pastor is, so is the flock. We enjoy- 
full religious liberty in our country. All we need 
is good, courageous pastors — standard-bearers 
in the cause of God and the people. We would 
be only too happy to follow them, and to support 
and encourage them by every means in our 
power. What an immense amount of good could 
thus be achieved in a short time ! Our religion 
never loses anything of its efficacy upon the 
minds and hearts of men ; it can only lose in 
as far as it is not brought to bear upon them. 
What is most wanted is not argument, but 
instruction and explanation. 

" I can hardly account for this want of zeal for 
true Catholic education in so many of our clergy, 
who are otherwise models of every virtue, 
than by supposing the fact that their ecclesi- 
astical training must have been deficient in many 
respects, or that they must have spent their 
youth in our godless Public Schools, where 
they were never thoroughly imbued with the true 
spirit of the Catholic Church — the spirit of 
God. 



390 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

"I have quietly, for some time, studied, as far as 
I was able, the prevailing spirit of our people ; 
noted the remarks and efforts of a few eccle- 
siastics, laics, and Catholic periodicals (and, alas I 
how very few) made in behalf of the sacred obli- 
gation of education, and endeavored to compare 
the results with the efforts, and the observation 
made is sadly disheartening. 

"Examine the Catholic almanacs, the census of 
the various States, or those of the United States, 
and ascertain, first, the number of Catholics in 
the country ; second, the number of those between 
the ages of six and twenty-one years ; then divide 
this last number by the number of Catholic schools, 
including colleges, academies, convents, parochial 
and private schools, and the quotient will be "what? 
Indifference to CatJiolic education! In other words, 
this simple operation in vulgar arithmetic demon- 
strates that in no country claiming to be enlight- 
ened can be found thh'teen millions of Catholics 
with such an inadequate number of schools as we 
have, or are likely to have, if a policy widely differ- 
ent from that which prevails at present be not early 
inaugurated and steadily pursued. It is, indeed, 
true — and I willingly, cheerfully admit the fact 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATIOlSr. 391 

— that most of our priests, and nearly all our 
bishops, are exerting themselves zealously, stren- 
uously, and with marked success, in the cause of 
education. But not all the priests ; not all the 
bishops are enlisted in the cause ; nor are all in 
positive sympathy with it. All may be, perhaps 
are, agreed in believing that Catholic education is 
necessary ; but all are not agreed as to the necessity 
of Catholic schools in which it may be secured. 
TJnaniraity exists as to the end, but not as to the 
means to that end. And this lack or absence of 
unanimity, especially among those whose peculiar 
province it is to shape and direct Catholic senti- 
ment, has produced, and continues to produce, 
the most injurious consequences. 

"Many of the clergy are not opposed to the Pub- 
lic Schools, nor do they feel reluctant to publicly 
make known the "faith which is in them," when 
an opportunity presents itself. Many are opposed 
to these schools, but theirs is a negative opposi- 
tion ; that is, they are not in favor of them. 
They believe that Catholic schools are better and 
safer, but they do not consider it a duty incumbent 
on themselves to undertake the labor and trouble 
inseparable from the establishment and direction 



392 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of parochial schools. These reverend gentlemen 
are simply neutrals ; that is, if men may, or can, 
he neutral on such a subject. 

"Thought is free, and it may, perhaps, be im- 
possible to have entire unanimity in matters of 
opinion only ; but if one of the ends sought to be 
attained by the Church be the securing to each 
child a Catholic education, it is very evident that 
the establishment of schools should not be left to 
the discretion or whim of the several pastors. 
Upon subjects far less important than that of 
schools, the statutes in man}'' dioceses are clear, 
explicit, binding. Is there any reason for their 
silence on the subject of education? Our bishops 
have not only the power, but the will, to enforce 
such matters of discipline as they deem necessary. 
This o^ranted — because too clear to be denied — 
does it not follow that the establishment of schools 
may be made obligatory upon pastors? Let dis- 
cipline be made uniform, and we will not witness 
such an anomalous condition of things as exist at 
present. Duties are never in collision; obli- 
gations never clash. There is but one right thing 
to be done, but one right cause to pursue, all 
things considered; and whatever is in conflict 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION^. 393 

with this cannot be a duty, whatever may seem to 
be its claim. In some parts of this country, the 
sacraments are refused to those who decline to have 
their children attend Catholic schools where such 
are convenient ; but there is not, so far as I am 
informed, in those parts, any rule making it obli- 
gatory upon pastors to establish such schools. In 
other sections, to withhold the sacraments for such 
a cause is unthought of. The consequence is that 
many Catholics are at a loss to understand why it 
is that an act which subjects them to such severe 
punishment in one diocese should in another not 
call forth even a mild reproof — pass unnoticed. 
In actions indifferent in themselves, it may be 
wise, "when in Rome, to do as the Romans do " ; 
but where principle is involved, such an easy 
adaptability cannot be encouraged. 

"In this laxity of discipline, and in this want of 
uniformity, in this wide difference of opinion 
amona: those who give direction to Catholic senti- 
ment, and who speak, as it were, ex cathedra, may 
be found some of the causes for the indifference 
existing among our people on the question of 
Catholic education. 

"But it is so convenient to allow things to go on 



394 PUBLIC SCHOOL education. 

in the old way, and so hard to establish anj'thing 
new. Yet a thing which, in the great struggle 
between the Church and antichrist, is one of the 
most powerful means of victory, is really worth 
the highest sacrifice. Indeed, the establishment 
of thorough Catholic schools is the most import- 
ant step that can be taken by our clergy to solve 
certain social questions, and which can be solved 
only on Catholic principles. The greatest social 
dansfer of the ao-e, is the dechristianization and 
demoralization of the rising generation. This 
dechristianization and demoralization are, to a 
great extent, the cause of the wretchedness of 
society, and make that wretchedness almost in- 
curable. What enormous dimensions has this 
evil assumed under the present godless system of 
education in the Public Schools ! But even the 
evils resulting from this system might, to a great 
extent, be healed, if the clergy labor, with the 
zeal and fire of apostolic times, to have good 
schools, and imbue our children therein with 
thorough Christian knowledge, with fervent piety 
and earnest devotion. Oh ! if the children of 
light were only as Avise as the children of the 
world, we should witness wonders. It is true 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 395 

that evil makes its way in this world better than 
goodness does, but it is also true that goodness 
does not prosper, because those who represent it 
take the matter too lightly, or do not go about it 
as they should. More is often done for the worst 
cause than men are willing to do or to sacrifice 
for the best, A great deal has of late years been 
done for the establishment and maintenance of 
Catholic schools. Let us sincerely hope that a 
great deal more will be done, and more univer- 
sally ; and need requires us not only to pray, 
but to work with all our strength, with inexhaust- 
ible patience and devotion, at the establishment 
of Catholic schools, and make, for this noblest of 
objects, sacrifices not less generous than those 
made by infidels in behalf of godless education." 
It was thus that the good old gentleman spoke 
to me. He uttered great truths. His language 
is that of all good Catholics in the country. I 
have often heard it! It is no exaggeration to 
assert that the salvation of those of our clergy 
who have charge of congregations depends, in a 
great measure, on the solicitude with which they 
promote the thorough Catholic education of those 
children who are confided to their care. 



396 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

"Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of 
the Lord : Thus saith the Lord God : Behold I 
Myself come upon the shepherds, I will require 
My flock at their hand."— ( Ezek. xxxiv. 9, 10.) 

If our Lord will require His flock at the hands 
of their pastors. He will undoubtedly require from 
them a stricter account of that part of his flock 
for which he has always shown a particular pre- 
dilection, that is, for children. It was to children 
that He gave the special honor of being the first 
to shed their blood for His name's sake. He has 
given them to us as a model of humility, which we 
should imitate : " Unless you become like little 
children, you shall not enter the kingdom of 
heaven." He wishes that every one should hold 
them in great honor : " See that you despise 
not one of these little ones." Why not? "For 
I say to you, that their angels always see the face 
of My Father who is in heaven." — (Matt. 
xviii. 10.) 

He wishes every one to be on his guard, lest he 
should scandalize a little child: "It were better 
for him that a mill-stone were put about his neck, 
and he cast into the sea, than that he should 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 397 

scandalize one of these little ones." — ( Matt, 
xviii. 6.) 

He says that the love, attention, and respect 
paid to a child, is paid to Himself. "And Jesns 
took a child and said to them : Whosoever shall 
receive this child in My name, receiveth Me." — 
( Luke ix. 48.) 

He rebuked those who tried to prevent little 
children from beinsi; presented to Him, that He 
might bless them : " And they brought to Him 
young children, that he might touch them. And 
the disciples rebuked those who brought them ; 
whom, when Jesus saw, He was much displeased, 
and saith to them : Suffer the little ones to 
come unto Me, and forbid them not : for of 
such is the kingdom of God. Amen I say 
to you, whosoever shall not receive the king- 
dom of God as a little child, shall not enter into 
it. And embracing them, and laying His hands 
upon them. He blessed them." — (Mark x. 13-16.) 

The motives, then, that should induce every 
priest to devote himself zealously to the spiritual 
welfare of youth, are : First, the great interest 
which Jesus Christ takes in children; and second, 



398 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

the more abundant fruits reaped from the care 
bestowed upon the young. 

The Son of God came into the world to redeem 
all who were lost. But do children profit by 
His abundant redemption? Do they draw from 
the source of graces that are open to all? Will 
they be marked with the seal of Divine Adoption, 
and be nourished with His own Flesh in the Sacra- 
ment of His love? Will they be counted, in the 
course of their career, among the number of His 
fiiithful disciples, or among the enemies of His 
law? Will they one day be admitted into His 
kingdom? Will they be excluded? Is it heaven 
or hell that will be their lot for all eternity? It 
is we priests, and almost we only, that are ex- 
pected to solve these problems. Children are the 
noblest portion of the flock that is confided to our 
care. Their fate is in our hands. If our zeal is 
not active in their salvation, Jesus will lose, in 
them, the fruit of His sufierings and death. How 
many are deprived forever of the sight and pos- 
session of God, because they have not received a 
good Catholic education. Who is to blame? Has 
the pastor suiSciently instructed, warned, and 
watched over them? How many lose their bap- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 399 

tismal innocence almost as soon as they are cap- 
able of losing it, grow up in vicious habits, grow 
old in. sin, and die impenitent at last, because they 
were neglected in early youth, were not subjected 
to the amiable yoke of virtue ! "Bonum est viro, 
cum portaverit jugum ab adolesceutia sua." — 
(Thren. iii. 27.) If the first years of life are pure, 
they often sanctify all the after life ; but if the 
roots of the tree are rotten and dead, the branches 
will uot be more healthy. " Adolescentes, cum 
semel a malitia fuerint occupati, quasi incaptivita- 
tem essent adducti, qiioquo diabolns jusserit euut." 
— (S. Chrys. Horn. 19 in Gen.) Education is the 
mould in which a man's moral, intellectual, and 
relisious character is formed. Man will become, 
in his old age, what education made him in his 
youth. " Adolescens juxta viam suam, etiam cum 
senuerit, nonrecedetabea." — (Prov. xxii. 6.) All 
is a snare and seduction for youth. If the fear 
of God, the horror of evil, the maxims of religion, 
are not profoundly engraven in the soul, what is 
to protect young people from their passions? 
What can be expected of a young man who has 
never heard of the happiness of virtue, the hopes 
of the future life, and the blessings or the woes 



400 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

of eternity? Now who will give the Christian 
education, if not'thc pastor? Can we rely on the 
parents ? on Sunday-school teachers ? Oh, priests ! 
we are almost the only resource of these poor 
children. Can we, knowing, as we do, how ranch 
Jesus Christ loves them, can we, I say, resign 
ourselves to leaving them in their misery? " The 
kings of the earth have their favorites," said St. 
Augustine. The favorites of Jesus Christ are 
innocent souls. What is more innocent than the 
heart of a child whom baptism has purified from 
original stain, and who has not, as yet, contracted 
the stain of actual sin ? This heart is the sanctu- 
ary of the Holy Ghost. Who can tell with what 
delight He makes of it His abode ? DeliciaG mese 
esse cum filiis hominum. Look at the mothers 
who penetrated the crowd that surrounded the 
Saviour, in order to beg Him to bless their chil- 
dren. . . . They arc at first repulsed ; but soon 
after, what is their joy when they hear the good 
Master approve their desires', and justify what a 
zeal, little enlightened, taxed with indiscretion ! 
Ah ! let us understand the desires of the Son of 
God. "Suffer," says He to us, ''suffer little chil- 
dren to come to mc." What! You banish those 



• PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 401 

who are clearest to Me? They who resemble 
them belong to the kingdom of heaven. If you 
love Me, take care of My sheep, but neglect not 
My lambs. Pasce agiios meos. Despise not one of 
My little ones. "Videte ne contemnatis unum ex 
his pusillis." — (Matt, xviii. 10.) I regard as done 
to Mj^self, all that is done to them. " Qui suscep- 
erit unum parvulum talem, in nomine meo, me 
suscipit." — (Ibid. 5.) O Saviour of the world! 
the desire to be beloved by Thee, and to prove my 
love for Thee, urges me to devote myself to the 
Catholic education of our children. 

How o^reat and consolinar are not the fruits of 
zeal, when it has youth for its object ! The good 
pastor never despairs of the salvation of his sheep, 
whatever may be their wanderings ; he knows the 
power of grace, and the infinite mercy of the Lord. 
But what difficulties does he not encounter when he 
undertakes to bring back to Grod persons ad- 
vanced in age ! Children, on the contrary, oppose 
but one obstacle to his zeal — levity. All he 
needs with them is patience. Their souls are like 
new earth, which waits only culture to produce a 
quadruple. They are flexible plants, which take 
the form and direction given to them. Their 
26 



402 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

hearts, pure from criiiiiiial ufFections, are suscepti- 
ble of happy impressions aucl tendencies. They 
believe in authority. A religious instinct leads 
them to the priest. They adopt with confidence 
the faith and the sentiments of those who instruct 
them. Oh, how easy to soften that age, in speak- 
ing of a God Who has made Himself a child, and 
Who died for us ! to awaken the fear of the Lord, 
compassion for those who suffer, gratitude, divine 
love, in souls predisposed, by the grace of baptism, 
to all the Christian virtues ! Ask the most zeal- 
ous pastors, and all will tell you that no part of 
their ministry is more consoling than that which 
is exercised for youth, because the fruits are in- 
comparably more abundant. Although all my 
efforts for the sanctificatiou of an old man, ever 
unfaithful to his duties, should be crowned with 
success, they could not help his long life being 
frightfully void of merits, and a permanent revolt 
against heaven. But if there be a child in ques- 
tion, my zeal sanctifies his whole life; I deposit 
in his soul the germ of all the good that he will 
do, and I shall participate in all the good works 
with which his career will be filled. All believers 
have come out of one single Abraham. From 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 403 

one child, well brought up, a whole generation of 
true Christians can proceed. In this little flock 
that surrounds me, God sees, perhaps, elect souls 
on whom His Providence has formed great de- 
signs — pious instructors, holy priests, who will 
carry far the knowledge of His name, and aid 
Him in saving millions of souls. In what aston- 
ishment would the first catechists of a St. Vincent 
de Paul, of a Francis Xavier, be thrown, had 
they been told what would become of those chil- 
dren, and what they would one day accomplish ! 
But even supposing that all those confided to me 
follow the common way, I have in them the surest 
means of renewing my parish. To-day they re- 
ceive the movement, in fifteen years they will give 
it. They will transmit good principles, happy 
inclinations to their own children, who will trans- 
mit them in their turn. Behold, it is thus that 
holy traditions are established, and a chain of solid 
virtues perpetuated ; ages will reap what I have 
sown in a few days. It is by these considerations 
that the greatest saints, and the finest geniuses of 
Christianity, became so much attached to the edu- 
cation of youth. St. Jerome, St. Gregory Pope, 
St. Augustine, St. Vincent Ferrier, St. Charles 



404 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales, St. Joseph Cal- 
asanctius, Gerson, Bellanniii, Bossuet, Fenelon, 
M. Olier, etc., believed they could never better 
emph)y their time and talents than in consecrating 
them to the education of the young. " It is consid- 
ered honorable and useful to educate the son of a 
monarch, presumptive heir to his crown. . . But 
the child that I form to virtue, is he not the child 
of God, inheritor of the kingdom of heaven?" — • 
(Gerson.) "Believe me," said St. Francis de Sales, 
" the angels of little children love those with a 
particular love who bring them up in the fear of 
God, and who plant in their tender souls holy 
devotion." Have we always comprehended all 
the good that we can do to children by our hum- 
ble functions? 

But if we wish for the end, we must also wish 
for the means — for Catholic schools. They are 
the nurseries of the Church, as novitiates are the 
nurseries of religious orders. The chief pastoral 
work of the Church is to be done in the school. 
The school must be the chief solicitude of the 
priest. He must consider no trouble too great, 
no sacrifice of time and convenience too much, in 
order to secure good attendance and efficiency in 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 405 

the school. Neither sick calls, nor any other 
ecclesiastical duties, should be allowed to interfere 
with the school. He must be the life and char- 
acter of the school, and it is principally he 
who must administer correction. The authority 
of the priest, his interest in the school, and 
his relation towards the parents, are far more 
persuasive and effectual as corrections, than scold- 
ings and penances inflicted by the master and 
mistress. 

It seems to me that we cannot insist too much 
upon the vital importance of the Catholic school. 
A priest's time is never better employed than 
when three or four hours of it are daily spent in 
school — and that so regularly, that his presence 
in the school is looked for alike by teachers, chil- 
dren, and parents — and when he then occupies 
another portion of his day in looking after the 
defaulters, and in talking with parents over the 
school duties, and the future prospects of their 
children. Thus the parents feel that in sending 
their children to be educated there, they are not 
turning them over to a number of paid teachers, 
nor even to Brothers and Sisters, but to the clergy 
themselves, for their education. This personal 



406 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

interest and solicitude of the priest reacts upon 
the parents as well as upon the children. 

A pastor, then, wishiug to secure the salvation 
of the best part of the flock of Jesus Christ, must 
do all in his power to establish good Catholic 
schools, and oblige parents to send their children 
to them, and not to Public Schools — to the grave 
of Catholicity. It is then, also, and not till then, 
that we shall see more young people called to the 
priesthood, and to such religious orders as devote 
themselves especially to the education of youth. 
In Europe, the bishops and priests, together with 
the laity, fight for the liberty of educating the 
children according to Catholic principles and cus- 
toms. In this country, our religious liberty is as 
great as it possibly can be. Now not to profit by 
this liberty, is for the shepherds of the flock of 
Jesus Christ to incur the greatest guilt ; it is to 
be like that ungodly Bishop of Burgos, who, on 
being told by Las Casas that seven thousand 
children had perished in three months, said : 
"Look you, what a queer fool ! what is this to 
me, and what is that to the King?" To which 
Las Casas replied : " Is it nothing to your Lord- 
ship that all these souls should perish? Oh, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 407 

great and eternal God ! And to whom, then, is it 
of any concern ? " — (Life of Las Casas, by Arthur 
Helps.). 

To be destitute of ardent zeal for the spiritual 
welfare, of children, is to see, with indifferent 
eyes, the Blood of Jesus Christ trodden under 
foot; it is to see the image and likeness of God 
lie in the mire, and not care for it; it is to de- 
spise the Blessed Trinity ; the Father, who created 
them ; the Son, who redeemed them ; the Holy 
Ghost, who sanctified them ; it is to belong to that 
class of shepherds, of whom the Lord com- 
manded Ezekiel to prophesy as follows : " Son of 
man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel : 
prophesy and say to the shepherds : TIius saith 
the Lord God : Wo to the shepherds of Israel . . . 
My flock you did not feed. The weak you have 
not strengthened ; and that which was sick, you 
have, not healed : that which was broken, you 
have not bound up ; and that which was driven 
away, you have not brought again ; neither have 
you sought that which was lost : . . . and My sheep 
were scattered, because there was uo shepherd : 
and they became the prey of all the beasts of the 
field, and were scattered. My sheep have 



408 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

wandered in every mountaiu, and iu every high 
hill : and there was none, I say, that sought 
them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word 
of the Lord : Behold, I Myself come upon the 
shepherds. I will require My flock at their hands." 
— (Ezek. xxxiv. 2-10.) To be destitute of this 
zeal for the Catholic education of our children, 
is to hide the five talents which the Lord has 
given us, instead of gaining other five talents. 
Surely the Lord will say : " And the unprofitable 
servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. 
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
—(Matt. XXV. 30.) 

What a shame for pastors of souls to know 
that the devil, in alliance with the wicked, is at 
work, day and night, for tli« ruin and destruction 
of youth, and to be so little concerned about 
their eternal loss; just as if it was not true what 
the holy Fathers say, that the salvation of one 
soul is worth more than the whole visible world ! 
Since when is it, then, that the price of the souls 
of little children has been lessened? Ah, as 
long as the price of the Blood of Jesus Christ 
remains of an infinite value, so long the price of 
souls will remain the same also ! Heaven and 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 409 

earth will pass away, but this truth will not. 
The devil knows and understands it but too well. 
Oh ! how he delights in a priest who is called, by 
Jesus Christ, " the hireling, because he has no 
care for the sheep, and who seeth the wolf 
coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth." — 
(John X. 12.) 

On the Day of Judgment, such a priest will be 
confounded by that poor man of whom we read, 
in the life of St. Francis de Sales, as follows : 
One day this holy and zealous pastor, on a visit 
of his diocese, had reached the top of one of 
those dreadful mountains, overwhelmed with 
fatigue and cold, his hands and feet completely 
benumbed, in order to visit a single parish in 
that dreary situation ; while he was viewing, with 
astonishment, those immense blocks of ice of an 
uncommon thickness, the inhabitants, who had 
approached to meet him, related that some days 
before a shepherd, running after a strayed sheep, 
had fallen into one of these tremendous precipices. 
They added that his fate would never have been 
known if his companion, who was in search of 
him, had not discovered his hat on the edge of 
the precipice. The poor man, therefore, im- 



410 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

agiued that the shepherd might be still relieved, 
or, if he should have perished, that he might be 
honored with a Christian burial. 

With this view he descended, by the means of 
ropes, this icy precipice, whence he was drawn 
up, pierced through with cold, and holding in 
his arms his companion, who was dead, and almost 
frozen into a l^lock of ice. Francis, hearing this 
account, turned to his attendants, who were dis- 
heartened with the extreme fatigues which they had 
every day to encounter, and availing himself of 
this circumstance to encourage them, he said : 
"Some persons imagine that we do too much, and 
we certainly do far less than these poor people. 
You have heard in what manner one has lost his 
life in an attempt to find a strayed animal ; and 
how another has exposed himself to the danger 
of perishing, in order to procure for his friend a 
burial, which, under these circumstances, might 
have been dispensed with. These examples 
speak to us in forcible language ; by this charity 
we are confounded, we who perform much less 
for the salvation of souls intrusted to our care, 
than those poor people do for the security of ani- 
mals confided to their charge." Then the holy 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 411 

Prelate heaved a deep sigh, saying : " My God, 
what a beautiful lesson for bishops and pastors ! 
This poor shepherd has sacrificed his life to save 
a strayed sheep, and I, alas ! have so little zeal 
for the salvation of souls. The least obstacle 
suffices to deter me, and make me calculate my 
every step and trouble. Great God, give me 
true zeal, and the genuine spirit of a good shep- 
herd ! Ah, how many shepherds of souls will 
not this herdsman judge ! " Alas ! how just and 
how true is this remark. If we saw our very 
enemies surrounded by fire, we would think of 
means to rescue them from the danger ; and now 
we see thousands of little children, redeemed at 
the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, on the 
point of losing their faith, and with it their 
souls ; and shall we be less concerned and less 
active for these images and likenesses of God 
than for their frames, their bodies? 

We hear a little child weeping, and we at once 
try to console it ; we hear a little dog whining at 
the door, and we open it ; a poor beggar asks for 
a piece of bread, and we give it ; and we hear the 
Mother of our Catholic children — the Catholic 
Church — cry in lamentable accents: "Let my 



412 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

little ones have the bread of life — a good Chris- 
tian education" — and we do not heed her voice. 
We hear Jesus Christ cry, " Suffer the little ones 
to come unto Me," by means of a Catholic educa- 
tion ; we hear hiui say : " Woe to him who scan- 
dalizes a little child" — who makes it lose his 
incocence — his faith — his soul, by sending it to 
godless schools ; we see Him weep over Jerusa- 
lem, over the loss of so many Catholic children, 
and we hear Him say : " Weep not over me, but 
for your children " ; and neither His voice nor His 
tears make any impression. We say with the 
man in the Gospel, " Trouble me not, the door 
(of our heart) is now shut, I cannot rise and give 
thee." — (Luke xi.) If an ass, says our Lord, 
falls into a pit, you will pull him out even on a 
Sabbath-day ; and an innocent soul, nay, thousands 
of innocent children, fall away from Me and pass 
over to the army of the apostate angels, and be- 
come My and your adversaries, and you do not 
care. Oh, what great cruelty, what hardness of 
heart, nay, what great impiety ! If we were 
blind, we should not have sin ; but as Jesus 
Christ has spoken to us on the subject of educa- 
tion through His Vicar on earth, through so many 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 413 

zealous bishops, through sad experience, nay, 
even through many of those who are outside the 
Church, we have no excuse for our sin of suffer- 
ing devilish wolves to devour our youth in our 
country. " My watchmen," says the Lord, " are 
all duinh dogs, not able to bark, seeing vain things, 
sleeping y and loving dreams." — (Isa. Ivi. 10.) 
Truly the curses and maledictions of all those 
who led a bad life, and were damned for want of 
a good Christian education, which we neglected to 
give them, will come down upon us ! What shall 
we answer? "And he was silent." — Matt. xxii. 

Marvellous, indeed, have been God's gracious 
dealings with this poor land of ours, so very far 
above what we could have dreamed or hoped for 
some years ago, that we may say in all truth that 
the finger of God has touched us. That touch 
has quickened Catholic life in our laud to a won- 
derful extent ; not, indeed, as yet, with the great 
exuberance of Catholic European countries, but 
nevertheless with almost exulting gladness ; for 
to-day there are few indeed of our cities and 
towns in which at least the pulse of Catholic life 
does not beat strongly. 

But why have these great things been done for 



414 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

US? Why has our Catholic life been increased and 
strengthened so wonderfully, except to win more 
souls to Christ, to bring more of the American 
people into closer union with God? If this be so, 
then we must not leave our Lord to work alone ; 
we must be fellow-workers with Him, by helping 
forward the growth of holiness, the progress of 
the spiritual life, the poverty of the Cross, the 
spreading of His Spirit in opposition to the for- 
mal and self-indulgent spirit of the age, and this 
by every means in our power; and, above all, by 
multiplying amongst us Catholic schools and in- 
stitutions. What the future may have in store 
for the Church in America we cannot tell ; whether, 
when more of God's Spirit has been poured out 
upon us, our sons and our daughters shall proph- 
esy, and our young men shall see visions, and our 
old men shall dream dreams, as in the days of 
old; but of this we may be sure, that in exact 
proportion as our clergy exert that mighty en- 
ergy which springs from the living fiiith that 
overcomes the world, in order to leaven the mass 
of the American people, and to build up, through- 
out the length and breadth of the land, temples 
and schools to God's holy name, and altars to His 



PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 415 

honor, will be the manifestation of the kingdom 
of God with power and majesty in the midst of 
this American land, and the grasp of God's 
Church upon the hearts and minds of this Amer- 
ican people ! 

I have now only to add that I submit this, and 
whatever else I have written, to the better judg- 
ment of our Bishops, but especially to the Holy 
See, anxiously desirous to think nothing, to say 
nothing, to teach nothing but what is approved 
of by those to whom the sacred deposit of Faith 
has been committed — those who watch over us 
as being to render an account to God for our 
souls. 

Now, should the Prelates of the Church deem 
this publication ever so little calculated to pro- 
mote the great cause for which it has been written, 
the compiler will believe himself amply rewarded 
for his labor, and he will feel extremely grateful 
if they encourage its circulation by giving it their 
special approbation and recommendation. 



Father Michael Miiller's Books, 



FOR SALE BY 



PATRICK DONAHOE, 



The Blessed Eucharist our Greatest 
Treasure. Price, $1.50. 

[Letter from Archbishop Spalding. '[ 

" We have read with much pleasure and with great edification this val- 
uable work, composed by one of our Redemptorist Fathers in Baltimore. 
We have found the matter solid, well digested, and instructive, and the 
style simple, earnest, and full of unction. The examples are, in general, 
appropriately selected as illustrations of the text; and many of them are 
very edifying, and even touching. These are, of course, to be received, 
according to the author's timely protest in the beginning, with the wise re- 
serve expressly ordered by the Church in regard to such matters, in the 
well-known Bull of Urban VIII.; but, with this necessary precaution, such 
legends are profitable unto edification, as the way of teaching by example 
is much more compendious, as well as much more impressive, than that by 
word or writing. It is refreshing to find, in this cold utilitarian age, a work 
issued from the press so full of Catholic life, and so glowing with the fire 
of Catholic love. Believing that its extensive circulation and diligent 
perusal will be promotive of piety, and will be useful to all classes both 
within and without the Church, we earnestly recommend the work to the 
faithful people under our charge. 

" MARTIN JOHN SPALDING, Archbishop of Baltimore. 
'■•Baltimore, Feast of St. Francis de Sales, iS6S." 



[Letter from Bishop Luers.} 

"Rev. and Dear Sir: — 'The Blessed Eucharist,' of which you have 
kindly sent me a copy, is truly a charming -vvork. It should be in every 
Catholic family. Yours truly in Christ, 

" J. H. LUERS. Bishop oj Fort Way tie. 
"Fort IKiy/i^, January 23, 1S6S." 

(1) 



[Frotn the '■^Baimcr of the South,''^ Augusta, Georgia."] 
"We have read this beautiful book; we have tasted the sweetness of its 
thoughts, and we are reading' it again. Tliere is a humility about its style 
so like His humility who dwells with us in the Holy Sacrament : deep 
thoughts in plain words — doctrinal sublimities in language so simple, that 
a child, without effort, may understand. It is indeed a book of piety, and 
it will fill many a heart with love for the Great Mystery of the Altar. 

"Rev. father RYAN, of Augusta, Ga." 

[Letter to the Editors of the '■^Baltimore Mirror.'''] 
" Messrs. Editors of the Baltimore Mirror : — If you have room in your 
columns, permit me, through them, to say a word or two about Father 
Mailer's book, -The Blessed Eucharist.' But how shall I begin? To say 
it is great, good, or grand, is not enough. The nearest I can come to ex- 
pressing what I feel about it, is to say, next to receiving the Blessed 
Eucharist, is the perusal of this inestimable hook. I wish to say to every 
reader of the Mirror, buy the book. No matter how great a sinner you 
are, the hope of speedy relief is pointed out to you here; no matter how 
weak and discouraged you are, the way to strengthen you is shown here ; 
no matter how dear the privilege is to you of receiving the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, it will become doubly dear after reading this book. To the rich I 
would say, buy two copies and give one to your poor brother; his prayers 
and blessings will well repay you for the trifling expenditure. To the ladies 
I would say, spare yourself a bit of ribbon and buy the book. To the gen- 
tlemen, a few less cigars or drinks, and buy the book. Every single page 
of it is worth the price of the volume. Could dear Father Mullcr have heard 
the prayers and seen the tears of a poor old lady who is crippled, and cannot 
go to church, when it was being read to her this morning, he would be re- 
warded as I know he wishes to be. To one and all I say, buy the book. 

"CECELIA. 
"Harrishurs". Pa., iS6S." 



Prayer the Key of Salvation. Price, 
$i-5o- 

[Letter front Archbishop Sjialding.] 
" The Book on Prayer, Key of Salvation, is a collection of beautiful jew- 
els. It is a truly admirable book. In point of intrinsic merit, it is superior 
to its predecessor — the golden book on the Holy Eucharist — making due 
allowance for the difference of subject. It is replete with interest and solid 
instruction, and is specially well' adapted for spiritual reading in religious 
communities and in families. We take much pleasure in recommending to 
our diocesans this excellent work of Rev. M. Muller, C.S.S.R., which 
appears in a second revised edition. 

" M. J. SPALDING, Archbishop of B^tltimore. 
" Baltimore, Ash Wednesday, 1S69." 



Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in the 
Work of our Redemption and Sanc- 
TiFiCATiON. With an Historical Ac- 
count of the Origin and Effects of the 
Miraculous Picture. Price, 40 cents. 



[Letiei- from James A. \McMaster^ Editor and Proprietor of " Netv I'ork 
Freeman's Journal .''''^ 
•' My Dear Father Muller, — I have read the manuscript you were so 
kind as to leave with me, on ' Our Lady of Perpetual Help.' 

" I will say, sincerely, that I think it even more valuable, and more inter- 
esting, than your hook on the Blessed Eucharist, that has done so much 
good, and is liked so much by pious souls. More than this it cannot be 
needed to say; but I will add that, in my poor judgment at least, it is so de- 
sirable to have it speedily published, that I wish the angels may tickle the 
lungs of any one that, beyond what is necessary, delays its production. 
" Affectionately and humbly yours, 

"JAMES A. McMASTER. 
"New Tork, May 19, 1S71." 



The Golden Rule ; or, The Book for 
All. Price, $2.00, 

[From the •' Boston Pilot,''^ Nov. 25, 1871.] 

" The author of this excellent work is the Rev. Michael Mflller, C.S.S.R. 
— a name deservedly held in great esteem in the Catholic community. We 
shall not praise the author for his eminent qualities, for we do not wish to 
give him pain. But of his work, which we have carefully examined, we 
must say that it will compare favorably with Rodriguez, Nigronius, and 
Cassian. True, it is written for Superiors of Religious Communities, yet it 
will prove eminently useful to Pastors and Directors of Souls. Father Mul- 
ler exhibits a knowledge of Religious and Ascetic Economy truly wonderful. 
We bespeak for this work a wide circulation. It is a book of that enticing class 
that, once taken up, it will not be laid down until read through, from A to Z. 
Dry as the subject may appear, it is so handled that the Utile Dulci must needs 
be felt by all readers. Again we thank P'ather Muller for this new addition he 
has given to the stock of our American Catholic Literature and profitable 
reading 

" REV. FATHER FINOTTI." 



[From the " Nexo York Freeman's jfourna!."] 

" This book will be very valuable to Superiors of Religious Houses, for 
whom it is primarily intended. But it is the book, also, for a great many 
others. It is a book for Catholic Pastors of parishes — for they have gov- 
ernmental responsibility of souls. It is a book for priests who sit in the 
Confessioual, for these, too, have to deal with all sorts of temperaments and 
of characters. But it is a book, also, for Catholic parents — for these, by 
Divine order, have the care and responsibility for the right training of their 
children." 

[From the " Pittsburgh Catholic.''''] 

" This is a work which will be very acceptable to the Superiors of Religious 
Orders. In a clear and forcible manner the reverend author has laid before 
us the awful responsibility, with its trials and consolations, which rests on 
the shoulders of all those who are called to rule and direct the various char- 
acters that enter the religious state. 

" The art of arts, and the science of sciences, is to rule — to govern men. 
With this beautiful as well as profound saying of St. Gregory, the rever- 
end author opens his first chapter. Around it he hangs all the wisdom which 
many years of study and experience have enabled him to collect. 

" We have every hope that the work will meet with a well-merited recep- 
tion. It may truly be called the ' Golden Rule,' since it embraces all the 
duties of Superiors." 

[From the '' Baltimore Mirror, ^^ Nov. 4, 1S71.] 

" This excellent work, by a talented and respected clergyman of this city, 
although written principally for the instruction of those who have charge 
of religious communities, will prove of immense benefit to all in authority, 
■whether clerical or hiy; and wliile the director of souls will find in it much 
sound advice, the parent, the teacher, will treasure it as a safe guide in the 
performance of duties too often little understood. If it is hard to learn to 
obey, still harder is it to learn how to govern. The perusal of ' The Gol- 
den Rule ' will do much towards avoiding the misuse of the ' brief author- 
ity ' with which one is clothed. 

" The book bears the ' Imprimatur ' of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Bal- 
timore, and its typographical execution does credit to the publishers." 



[From the '' iVei'j Fork Tablet,'" ^ov. ti, 1S71.] 

"This is trulv a golden book, full of sublime instruction for the govern- 
ing and the governed, not only in religious communities, for whom it seems 
specially intended, but amongst Christians in the world. It is a work of the 
highest importance, and ought to find a place in the library of every relig- 
ious liouse." 



Triumph of the Blessed Sacrament ; 
OR, History of Nicola Aubry. Price, 
50 cents. 

[rrom the '■'■Boston Pilot."] 

"This is a valuable work. Father MuUer is a writer well-known to the 
Catholics : his writings have proved most acceptable for their solidity and 
practicalness. This is a timely production, when, by an inexplicable incon- 
sistency, the agency of spirits is asserted, and their existence denied. The 
history of Nicola cannot be contradicted; and page 114 contains the clearest 
exposition of the nature of Spiritualism (spiritism), and the conclusive 
proofs of its agency. 

"FATHER FINOTTI." 



[Fi-07n the "New York Tablet."'] 

" This little book is full, from beginning to end, of extraordinary and in- 
tense interest. The nan'ative contained in the first part of it is one that 
shows in a remarkable manner the dread power of Our Lord in His Sacra- 
ment of the Altar, a power which the infernal legions recognize, and before 
which they tremble. The second part gives a short but deeply interesting 
account of modern spiritualism, as the form which divination, sorcery, and 
devil-worship has assumed in our days. It is written in a simple, agreeable 
style, that makes it pleasant to read." 



The Religious State. Price, 75 cents. 

\_From the "Pittsburgh Catholic.'''''] 

"This is an excellent little work — one which should be read by all. It 
shows the origin of the religious state, and the advantages to be derived by 
a life solely devoted to the service of God. The many objections that are 
frequently put forward against religious orders are answered in a clear and 
brief manner." 



The Catholic Priest. Price, 50 cents. 

IFrotn the "Nezv York Tablet."] 

" The priest is measured in every light which the various obligations and 
phases of his sacred character throw around him. His mighty proportions 
on the world's stage are drawn with power, and thorough appreciation. 
Not a single grade in his ministry but is educed with a fine distinctness, 



from the position in wliich he is tlie dear friend and adviser of his flock, up 
to that awful height in which lie is permitted to touch, with his consecrated 
hands, the Body and Blood of his Lord and God. Written in a strain of 
fervent enthusiafem, it is, for Catholics, a book to be read and cherished." 



[From the '■'■Pittsburgh Catholic .'''''\ 

" This is a small volume of 163 pages. In it the learned author shows us 
how, by tlie institution of the Sacred Priesthood by our Divine Lord, the 
priest is constituted the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the guide, 
fatlier and friend of the people, and the obligations the faithful are under to 
hearken to his counsels. We wish the volume an extensive sale." 



The Our Father. Vol. I. Price, 50 
cents. 

Public School Education. Price, $1.50. 



II N PRESS.} 

Charity to Souls in Purgatory. 



The Instruments of the Passion of our Lord Jesus 

Christ. Paper, 75 cts. Cloth $1 60 

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Instruction of Youth. By Gobinet 1 50 

Preparation for Death. By St. Liguori 75 

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Eeflections on Spiritual Subjects. By St. Liguori. 75 
Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations. By 

Eev. J. H. Newman 1 00 

Wiseman's Sermons on the Devotion to the Holy Eu- 
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The Golden Treasury 75 

The Imitation of Christ. By Thomas A'Kempis. 

From 30 cts. to 1 50 

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The Spiritual Combat 30 

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Tear 80 

Th£ Forty Hours. Paper, 10 cts. Flexible cloth .. . 15 
The Immaculate Conception. By J. D. Bryant, M. D. 1 00 
Tne Month of Mary ; or. Devout Meditations. By 

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" " " " " 90 

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.IAN 4 - 1S24 



